The hedge fund industry in 2007 in Latin America continued on its course of impressive growth over the last few years, in an environment of favourable economic conditions and markets that were increasingly resilient to turbulence in the global economy. Industry assets nearly doubled in the last two years alone and it also turned in some of the best gains among hedge funds globally (the Eurekahedge Latin American Hedge Fund Index has bested all regional Eurekahedge performance indices in terms of annualised returns over the last seven years at 20.4%).
Based on the data contained in the 2008 edition of the Eurekahedge Latin American Hedge Fund Directory and other related information, we currently estimate the total size of the Latin American hedge fund space at about 330 funds managing close to US$60 billion in assets. The industry’s share of global hedge fund assets now stands at slightly over 3%, up from 1% at the end of 2000, and has grown 3 basis points during 2007. Figure 1 below gives a snapshot of the industry growth over the past decade.
