Investors seeking diversification are leading to industry consolidation
The hedge fund industry is poised for a record-breaking year of mergers and acquisitions, driven to a great extent by the growing appetite of asset owners for managers — mostly larger firms — offering a broad array of single- and multistrategy approaches.
“Propelled by the wave of transactions in the fourth quarter of 2015, many positive factors are leading indicators that M&A deal momentum will continue, positioning 2016 to be a record year in terms of transactions,” predicted Chicago-based investment bank Madison Street Capital Partners LLC in its 2016 Hedge Fund M&A Outlook.
Last year was a hot one for hedge fund M&A: $252 billion of disclosed assets, excluding initial public offerings, moved among firms through 42 separate transactions. The number of transactions in 2015 was up 31% from 32 deals in 2014 and assets were up 27% from $199 billion. Eleven of the 42 deals in 2015 involved transactions of more than $5 billion, Madison Street Capital’s data showed. The firm’s research includes in its AUM totals deals that were agreed to in 2015, but not completed by the end of the year. Read Full Article