Reuters – A shakeout of the hedge funds industry could be over by June 2009, with nearly half of firms likely to shut up shop, a leading hedge fund manager said.
"The hedge fund bubble has popped and, unfortunately when any bubble pops, it’s a painful process," said Ken Kinsey-Quick, head of multi-manager of hedge fund firm Thames River Capital.
"If half were to close down, I wouldn’t be surprised. But the nice thing about hedge fund land is that things move very very quickly, it will probably be done and dusted by June," he continued
Hedge funds returns were a negative 19 percent last year, when investors pulled out a record $158.9 billion (113.86 billion pounds), according to data from Lipper.
