AUSTRALIA’S equity hedge funds bested the broad market and their struggling international peers last year – returning 17.47 per cent on average, according to figures recently published by LCA Publications in its Australia Hedge Quarterly.
That return not only beat the MSCI long-short index, which notched up 14.5 per cent last year, but also the All Ordinaries index, which rose 16.18 per cent in calendar 2005.
Around the world, long-short equity funds, the largest sub-sector of the hedge fund industry, suffered from directionless markets. They ended the year up just 9.68 per cent.
The biggest winner last year among Australia’s long-short equity funds was the fast-growing Mathews Capital Sabre Fund, which generated an 89.2 per cent return last year net of fees.
The Sabre Fund was voted best international hedge fund by Hedge Fund Intelligence last year, helping Philip Mathews to build up his funds under management to an estimated $700 million.
Over the past two years, the fund has generated an astonishing 364 per cent return.
