PerTrac Releases 2006 Hedge Fund Database Study

by Glen Shapiro, LawAndTax-News.com, New York

28 February 2007

New York-based PerTrac Financial Solutions on Monday announced the aggregate results of the 2006 PerTrac Hedge Fund Database Study, revealing that there had been a 61% increase in hedge funds and funds of hedge funds in hedge fund databases since the 2005 study.

“Investors and industry watchers will be interested to learn that the number of distinct hedge fund and funds of hedge funds we were able to identify in hedge fund databases in 2006 with duplicate funds removed increased by 61% from the prior year,” announced Meredith Jones, Managing Director of PerTrac, continuing:

“The number of single manager hedge funds increased by 68%, while the number of funds of hedge funds increased by 46%."

The study, released annually since 2003, has become a widely-followed indicator of the size and composition of the hedge fund industry. The 2006 study was conducted using data from twelve major hedge fund databases, combined and analyzed with the PerTrac Analytical Platform.

Key Findings of the 2006 PerTrac Hedge Fund Database Study included:

• The 2006 PerTrac Hedge Fund Database Study found a total of over 56,000 investment records across all databases, including both single manager hedge funds and funds of hedge funds (FOFs). Records are the total number of funds in all databases including all duplicate fund records. This total represents a jump of more than 15,000 records from last year. This more than 36% growth in hedge fund listings is due not only to growth in the number of existing hedge funds but also to further strides among databases in data collection and coverage of the hedge fund universe.
• Within the overall collection of more than 56,000 records, the PerTrac Analytical Platform revealed approximately 19,800 “distinct” hedge fund and fund of funds investments among the various hedge fund databases once duplicate records were removed. This figure counts individual classes within funds as distinct investments.
• Over 15,400 distinct funds reported performance data in 2006.
• Nearly 13,675 single manager hedge funds were identified, as well as approximately 6,100 FOFs. This compares with 8,100 single managers and 4,150 FOFs identified in the 2005 study.
• Nearly 4,900 distinct fund managers (general partners) were counted. Related fund management companies (subsidiaries, etc.), where identifiable as such, were counted as a single fund manager. This compares with approximately 3,500 general partners that were identified in 2005.
• Of the single manager hedge funds, approximately 10,200 reported performance in 2006. Of those, approximately 35% were onshore funds and 65% were offshore.
• About 36% of identified single manager funds were domiciled onshore (in the United States) while about 64% were domiciled offshore. Among FOFs, approximately 18% were domiciled onshore while 82% were offshore.

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