Custom House was established in Ireland in 1989 to provide a broad range of fund services to its clients. The group merged into Equity Trust on September 1, 2008, in effect becoming a joint venture between Equity Trust and the Custom House management. At that time, the holding company Custom House Global Fund Services was established in Malta. The company now has more than 260 employees and subsidiary offices in Chicago, Dublin, Guernsey, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Singapore. Custom House Singapore first opened its doors in April 2008 and has since grown to more than 60 personnel. The office has

London-based Capital Support was established in 2002 and is still privately owned. With offices located across the capital in Docklands, the City and the West End, the firm currently employs approximately 80 people and considers itself a vertical specialist in financial services technology. It is one of the UK’s leading IT solutions providers to the financial and professional services industry. Capital Support’s team of directors includes Nigel Brooks (pictured) and Dean Foreman, both of whom have extensive experience in the IT industry. By offering a one-stop IT service, Capital Support is able to provide bespoke solutions to its clients, and

London-based hedge fund advisor Audley Capital Advisors was established in 2005 by activist investor Julian Treger and private equity investor Michael Treichl. Launched that year, the Audley European Opportunities Fund generates alpha by making opportunistic investments in distressed situations, creating value through financial and/or operational restructurings. Because Audley orchestrates its own exit strategies, it considers itself to be more an “event-driver” than an event-driven manager. The firm currently advises on some USD900m in assets under management within Audley’s own funds and affiliated funds. Audley is regulated by the FSA, while the fund is regulated by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission.

Alcentra focuses its investment strategies on sub-investment grade debt capital markets of Europe and North America.

Alceda Fund Management is an independent service provider 100 per cent owned by Aquila Group based in Hamburg, Germany. Launched in 2007, Luxembourg-based Alceda has been one of the fastest growing structuring specialists in Europe, with current assets under administration of over USD4.5bn. It is one of Europe’s leading independent structuring specialists dedicated to providing institutional investors, fund managers, banks and family offices with tailored investment solutions. The Alceda UCITS Platform (AUP), which was designed in-house, provides its clients with the freedom to choose their own service providers from prime brokers to custodians and swap partners. This gives fund managers

Agecroft Partners specialises in consulting and third-party marketing for hedge funds. Its objective is to raise assets globally for institutional quality hedge fund managers by utilising a consultative approach within the institutional investor community. The firm was founded by Don Steinbrugge (pictured), who has 26 years of experience in the institutional investment management industry. The five senior professionals at the firm pride themselves on having strong investment and industry knowledge, giving them significant credibility with large institutional investors. The partners average over 16 years of industry experience, and four of the five partners have previously worked for multi-billion-dollar alternative investment

By Simon Gray – The second edition of the Hedgeweek Awards for excellence among hedge fund managers and service providers comes at a time when the outlook is starting to look brighter for the hedge fund industry following the difficulties of the past few years. Performance in 2010 was in most cases unspectacular but solid, delivering on the industry’s promise to provide consistent returns and protect capital whatever the state of traditional asset markets, and it appears that this pattern is continuing into the early months of 2011. The results of this year’s Hedgeweek Awards are conditioned by the increased

The Hedgeweek Awards for excellence among hedge fund managers and service providers have recognised the increased focus on transparency, consistency and depth of expertise in the new investment climate. The awards, presented on 3 March by actress Cherie Lunghi at a lunch in Mayfair, were decided by the votes of Hedgeweek’s nearly 41,000 subscribers, who include individual and institutional investors as well as managers and other industry professionals at firms including fund administrators, prime brokers, custodians and advisers.   The 2011 Hedgeweek Awards reflect the industry’s recovery form its difficulties in 2008 and early 2009 as stability in performance has