Globally, 391 hedge funds had assets of at least $1 billion, representing about 80% of the total assets in the industry. Of those funds, 255 are based in the U.S., with 144 in New York, up 17%. New York-based funds had $973 billion in assets at year-end, up 50% from a year earlier. The total assets of European hedge funds rose 25% to nearly $575 billion and London continues to be the dominant center in Europe, having nearly 60% of hedge-fund assets there. The market share of the top 22 European firms grew to 44% from 37%. Assets in funds based in the Asia-Pacific region grew 30% to $196 billion at the start of 2008. The study noted huge growth in China and India while Japanese funds had significant net outflows. Tokyo is declining as a hedge-fund center while Hong Kong and Singapore now have a total of 19 firms that manage assets of $1 billion or more.   more »

RAS Capital Management has launched an India-focused arbitrage-only fund of hedge funds. The RAS India Absolute Return Fund, which debuted in January, is a carve-out of the firm’s flagship multi-strategy fund of funds, RAS India Fund-of Funds, which launched in November 2006. In its first three months of trading, co-founder Robert Rahbari said the new offering is approximately flat. India Absolute Return is a multi-strat arbitrage vehicle with exposure to relative value, cash-futures, pair trading, statistical, volatility and convertible bond arbitrage. There are currently four managers in the portfolio. Rahbari said the fund is actively seeking new managers, but that it is limiting its exposure to five managers this year because “a lot of the trades tend to be similar.”   more »