Alpha Magazine's Hedge Fund 100 Rankings Show a Flight to Hedge Funds in the Face of Turbulent Markets

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - May 21, 2008) - Markets were in turmoil in 2007, but the Alpha Hedge Fund 100, the annual ranking of the world's biggest hedge funds, shows that money has flooded into hedge funds in the past year.

Total assets under management in the top 100 firms is a record $1.35 trillion, a 35 percent increase over 2007. The Hedge Fund 100's 75 percent share of all hedge fund assets is a record too, up 6 percentage points over 2007. And the ten biggest hedge funds control $324 billion, up 29 percent from 2007 and more than the combined capital of all Hedge Fund 100 firms at the end of 2001.

For the complete list -- available today online -- visit www.alphamagazine.com. The list also appears in the May 2008 issue of Alpha magazine.

JPMorgan Asset Management tops the Hedge Fund 100 for the second year in a row, thanks largely to its controlling stake in Highbridge Capital Management. JPMorgan Assets Management's total capital was $44.7 billion as of December 31, up from $33.1 billion a year earlier.

Alpha reports that institutional investors in particular were drawn to the JPMorgan/Highbridge alliance for its combination of hedge fund risk and old-bank stability. Highbridge nearly doubled in size from $15.7 billion to $27.8 billion, most of the increase coming from an influx in new money. Highbridge accounted for 62 percent of JPMorgan Asset Management's $44.7 billion in hedge fund assets, up from 47 percent a year earlier.

Just behind JPMorgan are Renaissance Technologies Corp. of East Setauket, New York, Och-Ziff Capital Management Group of New York and D.E. Shaw Group of New York, at $33.3 billion, $33.2 billion and $32.2 billion, respectively.

Performance didn't necessarily depend on size. Though some of the biggest Hedge Fund 100 firms logged some of the best returns, some smaller ones did just as well -- or better. The $7 billion, No. 93-ranked, New York-based Blue Ridge Capital, managed by John Griffin, delivered a 65 percent return. Chris Shumway's $6.6 billion Greenwich, Connecticut-based Shumway Capital Partners (No. 99) returned 51 percent.

Contact Information: Contact: Chris Cavanagh 212-224-3369 chriscavanagh@iimagazine.com