Hedge fund investors are looking for a new allocation to equity strategies, says BNP Paribas By Reuters

By Carolina Mandl

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Pension funds, endowments and family offices plan to make new equity hedge fund allocations by the end of the year, a survey by BNP Paribas ( OTC: ) showed, as the strategy led the industry’s performance in 2024. .

The bank interviewed 197 investors to gauge their appetite for hedge funds and their various investment strategies in the second half of the year.

BNP Paribas said 86% of institutional and private investors, funds of funds and advisers are ready to make new hedge fund allocations. However, only 26% of them will use new money for investments.

Equity hedge funds are the most popular allocation planned for the rest of the year for 61 percent of respondents, followed by credit and macro strategies, which were mentioned by 37 percent and 36 percent of investors, respectively, the survey found.

Marlin Naidoo, global head of capital introduction at BNP Paribas, told Reuters that among equity strategies, there was an increase in interest in long/short hedge funds with fundamental stocks as they navigated recent volatility well on markets. It follows a period when investors were more interested in market and credit neutral strategies.

Stock hedge funds are the best performers so far this year, up 10.3% through July, according to data provider PivotalPath. On average, all hedge fund strategies posted gains of 6.8% over the same period. This compares with gains of 16.7% for .

Multi-strategy hedge funds, a very popular strategy until recently, were cited by 27% of investors, while event-driven funds were cited by 26%.