NEW YORK, Sept 9 (Askume) – Pension funds, endowments and family offices are planning new equity hedge fund allocations by the end of the year, a BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA) survey showed .
The bank interviewed 197 investors to understand their interest in hedge funds and different investment strategies for the second half of the year.
BNP Paribas said 86% of institutional and private investors, funds of funds and advisers will make new allocations to hedge funds. However, only 26% will use the new cash for investing.
According to the survey, 61% of respondents said the most popular plan allocation for the rest of this year is stock hedge funds, followed by credit and macro strategies, which were mentioned by 37% and 36% of investors, respectively.
Among equity strategies, interest in fundamental equity long/short hedge funds has increased as they have weathered recent market volatility well, Marlin Naidu, global head of capital introduction at BNP Paribas, told Askume. Until then, investors had been more interested in market neutral strategies and debt.
Equity hedge funds are the best performers so far this year, rising 10.3% through July, according to data provider PivotalPath. On average, all hedge fund strategies gained 6.8% over the same period. By comparison, the S&P 500 index (.SPX) gained 16.7%.
Multi-strategy hedge funds are a very popular strategy recently, mentioned by 27% of investors, while event-driven funds are mentioned by 26% of investors.
