CQS and Cheyne Capital led the line-up of winners at the annual EuroHedge Awards last night – which were announced at a big hedge fund industry dinner and awards ceremony held at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel.
CQS won the Fund of the Year award for the second time in the past three years with its CQS Directional Opportunities Fund, as well as taking the Multi-Strategy category, while Cheyne won the Management Firm of the Year award for a second time – having won it previously in 2004.
CQS thus joined a select group – alongside Brevan Howard and The Children’s Investment Fund – who have won the top fund award for a second time. And Cheyne became the first firm apart from BlueCrest to have taken the Management Firm award more than once.
Pelagus Capital and the OxAM Quant Fund were the winners of the two Long Term Performance awards – which are based on the best risk-adjusted returns by hedge funds over a five-year period.
Hengistbury was a big winner on the night – winning both the New Fund of the Year award for Equity Strategies and also beating a very high-quality field for the Global Equity award.
BTG Pactual was a big winner too, taking the Global Macro award for a second time and featuring among the nominees for Fund of the Year as well – alongside the CCP Quantitative Fund, Cheyne Total Return Credit, Odey European and The Children’s Investment Fund, as well as the eventual winner CQS.
The EuroHedge Awards for 2012, now in their 12th year, paid recognition to those funds that had achieved the best risk-adjusted performance across a range of strategy areas.
In winning the coveted Management Firm of the Year award for a second time, Cheyne emerged victorious from a strong shortlist of leading groups comprising BlueBay Asset Management, Brummer & Partners, CQS and Marshall Wace (last year’s winner) – all of which achieved multiple award nominations for their performance in 2012.
Marshall Wace took the Equity Market Neutral & Quantitative Strategies award this time for its Market Neutral TOPS fund, while BlueBay was a first-time winner in the Event Driven & Distressed category. BlackRock, previously a big winner in the equity categories, was the winner this time in Global Fixed Income for its Fixed Income Global Alpha strategy.
Other first-time winners included AKO Capital and Pictet’s Corto European fund in the European Equity categories, Visio Capital in Emerging Market Equity, The Cassiopeia Fund in Convertibles & Volatility, Citi Capital Advisors in Credit, Amplitude in Managed Futures, GAM in the Commodities & Currency category, Black River in Emerging Markets, Alcentra in the Emerging Manager & Smaller Fund category and Eiffel Investment Group in New Funds.
Other repeat winners included the Chenavari Toro Capital fund, which won an award for the third year running in the Specialist Fixed Income & Credit category, and Tosca Mid Cap, which won for a second time by taking the Specialist Equity award.
Over 800 people attended the EuroHedge Awards gala dinner, including most of the leading managers and investors in the European hedge fund industry.
The complete list of winners in the 23 award categories was:
EUROPEAN EQUITY (under $500m)
Corto European
EUROPEAN EQUITY (over $500m)
AKO
SPECIALIST EQUITY
Tosca Mid Cap
GLOBAL EQUITY
Hengistbury
EMERGING MARKET EQUITY
Visio IV South Africa Long/Short
EQUITY MARKET NEUTRAL & QUANT STRATEGIES
Marshall Wace – MW Market Neutral TOPS
GLOBAL FIXED INCOME
BlackRock Fixed Income Global Alpha
CREDIT
CCA European Credit Opportunities
EVENT DRIVEN & DISTRESSED
BlueBay Distressed Opportunities
CONVERTIBLES & VOLATILITY STRATEGIES
The Cassiopeia Fund
SPECIALIST FIXED INCOME & CREDIT
Chenavari Toro Capital
EMERGING MARKETS
Black River EMEA Investors
COMMODITIES & CURRENCY
GAM Currency Hedge
MANAGED FUTURES
Amplitude Klassik
GLOBAL MACRO
BTG Pactual Global Emerging Markets & Macro
MULTI-STRATEGY
CQS Directional Opportunities
EMERGING MANAGER & SMALLER FUND
Alcentra Structured Credit Opportunity
NEW FUND OF THE YEAR - EQUITY STRATEGIES
Hengistbury
NEW FUND OF THE YEAR - RELATIVE VALUE & MACRO
Eiffel Credit Opportunities
LONG TERM PERFORMANCE – EQUITY STRATEGIES
OxAM Quant Fund
LONG TERM PERFORMANCE – RELATIVE VALUE & MACRO
Pelagus Capital
MANAGEMENT FIRM OF THE YEAR
Cheyne Capital
FUND OF THE YEAR
CQS Directional Opportunities