Cayman Islands Monetary Authority Reports Aggregate Hedge Fund Data

The Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) has released its first report using data gathered by CIMA's new electronic reporting system. The Investment Statistics Digest reviews Cayman Islands-regulated funds for the financial year 2006. It contains aggregate statistics for over 5,000 funds including their financial position, structure, investment strategies, subscription activity, fund administration and investment management services.

Australia investment managers are grouped in the Asian region alongside managers from Bahrain, Mauritius, Israel, India, Indonesia, China, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Thailand and New Zealand.

Report Highlights

1. The aggregate net asset value of the Cayman funds captured was US$1.387 trillion.

2. New York had the largest concentration of net assets held by investment managers with US$388 billion or 28%.

3. The UK, predominantly London, had the second largest concentration of net assets managed with a total of US$250 billion, or 18%.

4. Sixty-one percent of the funds reporting had a minimum subscription of US$500,000 or more.

5. The Cayman Islands was the primary location for the provision of administration services to the funds.

6. Multi-strategy (29%) and Long/short equity (27%) were the top two investment strategies of the reporting funds.

7. A master-feeder structure was used by 50% of the funds.

8. Total subscriptions and redemptions were US$760 billion and US$483 billion respectively.

9. The proportion of funds suspending trading was extremely low at 0.1%.

For an industry often regarded as secretive, this information from the regulator of the dominant offshore hedge fund domicile is very important. CIMA plan to release annual updates.