The Hedgeweek Global Awards 2018 for excellence among hedge fund managers and service providers celebrate the achievements of firms that contributed to another significant year for the sector.

Another year and, I’m pleased to say, another fantastic Global Hedgeweek Awards event. There was a lot to be cheerful about for this year’s winners, who once again demonstrated that creativity and innovation, not to mention a commitment to excellence, are alive and kicking in the hedge fund industry.

Sabre Fund Management is one of London’s most well established hedge fund managers, having launched its flagship market neutral Sabre Style Arbitrage Fund in 2002 and the newer Dynamic Equity Strategy in 2013. The firm is steered by Melissa Hill, CEO, who joined the firm in 1996.

With over 1,500 employees in international locations, over 250 employees and 40 partners dedicated to the financial services practice, EisnerAmper LLP has the breadth to handle global engagements and provide comprehensive guidance and support to its roster of hedge fund clients.

DMS Governance (DMS) is the worldwide leader in fund governance representing leading investment funds with assets under management exceeding USD350 billion.

JonesTrading’s heritage goes back seven decades following the Great Crash. George Jones, Sr, the grandfather of current chairman, William “Packy” Jones, was one of the principals of equity brokerage firm, Mitchum & Tully, later to become Mitchum, Jones & Templeton in the 1950s. Jones Sr helped grow the firm into the largest equity brokerage headquartered outside of New York. The firm’s outsourced trading office is based in Charleston, South Carolina.

Award-winning hedge fund and private equity administrator, JP Fund Administration (Cayman) Ltd, has grown its Assets Under Administration (AUA) to more than USD5 billion, bringing the JP Integra Group total AUA to more than USD6 billion.

Hathersage Capital Management LLC is a discretionary global macro investment manager founded in 1991. The firm is a foreign exchange specialist, expressing its global macro views strictly in G10 currencies, using interbank spot, forwards and vanilla options. 

“When I look back at what we’ve been able to accomplish, 2017 was a pivotal year for us in terms of establishing our unique identity,” says Jeffrey Solomon, CEO of Cowen, of which Cowen Prime Services is a core division.

Derivitec Ltd was born in 2011. Initially, it started life as a derivatives analytics software vendor. “Then I started to do some deep-dive market research into who in the market was successful and why. Two points clearly stood out in my mind: ease of use, and scalability,” says George Kaye, founder and CEO of Derivitec.

Whereas a few years ago, managers were jumping in to the ’40 Act mutual fund market to either launch standalone alternative mutual funds or become sub-advisors to multi-manager products, the fact is that there are so many regulations, that trying to replicate a hedge fund strategy – or even a diluted version of it – is difficult.

Harneys operates through 14 international locations and its global funds practice advises on all aspects of offshore investment funds, establishment, maintenance and restructuring both in distressed and planned scenarios. The firm’s global investment funds practice continued to grow in 2017, particularly in Cayman and Hong Kong. Harneys is now fully entrenched in the Cayman Islands, celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Its market disrupter approach and mentality has taken the offshore investment funds market by storm.

In Monaco back in 2013 – when bitcoin was priced at USD100 – Alistair Milne, an Internet entrepreneur since 1996, approached Lee Robinson with the idea to launch an innovative digital currency hedge fund. What resulted, in May 2014, was the Altana Digital Currency Fund (ADCF), the first actively managed, multi-asset cryptocurrency fund of its kind in Europe.

A lot has transpired since ML Capital founded its Irish-domiciled MontLake UCITS platform in October 2010 during the first wave of the alternative UCITS boom. From launching with just a single UCITS Fund, ML Capital finished 2017 with 25 UCITS funds on the Platform and over USD5 billion in Group AUM, and now sits as one of industry’s most visible and successful players.

Iron Cove Partners (ICP) is a leading full-service national insurance brokerage firm serving the financial services industry. Headquartered in Garden City, Long Island, ICP is a trusted advisor with decades of experience and over 150 hedge funds as clients.

It’s fair to say that Optima Fund Management has seen a lot of change in the hedge fund industry, given that it is preparing to celebrate its 30th anniversary.

Last year, hedge funds recorded positive returns during every month to end the year with gains of 11.41 per cent according to the 2018 Preqin Global Hedge Fund Outlook report. 

Pillar Capital Management (‘Pillar’) was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Bermuda. The firm manages open-ended Bermuda incorporated funds invested in the global property catastrophe risk market.

SS&C GlobeOp, a division of SS&C Technologies, is one of the best-known hedge fund administrators, servicing some of the industry’s largest hedge funds. Year-on-year, the group saw its total hedge fund assets under administration rise from USD584 billion to USD739 billion.

Agecroft Partners was founded by Don Steinbrugge, who has 34 years of experience in the institutional investment management industry, including previously serving as the head of sales for one of the world’s largest hedge funds and institutional investment management firms.

Sydney-based Invast Global is a subsidiary of Japanese listed Invast Securities Co Ltd. Employing a prime-of-prime model, Invast leads the industry in the provision of multi-asset high-quality, non-bank Prime Services. It provides credit intermediation, access to liquidity (both OTC and exchange) and comprehensive trading platforms/API connectivity options.

For over 30 years, Align has been building intelligent technology infrastructures, networks and private clouds, in various industries throughout the world. Over that time, much has changed in the industry as technology advances have re-shaped and re-imagined what is capable in the world of fund investing. Speaking with Hedgeweek, Vinod Paul, Chief Operating Officer of Align, refers to two key milestones in 2017:

Fair Oaks Capital was launched in 2013 by senior professionals previously at GSO Capital Partners and Apollo Global Management. It characterises itself as a research-driven investment manager with a focus on fundamental corporate credit analysis.