15/12/2011 Author: Will Wainewright

Old Mutual hedge funds record stellar 2011 returns

Old Mutual Asset Managers, the $380m hedge fund arm of Old Mutual, has avoided the poor returns suffered by much of the hedge fund industry this year and made strong gains in three of its four funds, HFMWeek has learned.

Its quant fund, Global Equity Absolute Return, returned a stellar 11.35% in the first 11 months, during which the average fund was down -4.37% according to Hedge Fund Research’s HFRI index.

The fund, which was overhauled between 2007-2009, flourished due to “the unstable macro environment being correctly diagnosed and the fund [being] appropriately positioned”, according to a source at the firm.

Its specialist equity and statistical arbitrage funds have also performed much better than average, gaining 5.06% and 5.27% respectively.

Only its managed future fund suffered a reverse, losing -2.09%.