$500bn in new assets. ~25% AUM growth. But only 10–11% growth in headcount.
That gap could become one of the defining talent challenges for multi-strategy hedge funds.
According to comments from Goldman Sachs’ Freddie Parker, multi-strategy managers have attracted around $500bn of additional assets over the past year. Capital is growing significantly faster than the teams responsible for deploying it.
And raising capital is only half the equation. The harder part is putting it to work efficiently.
For multi-strategy platforms, that could mean:
• Accelerating the hiring of experienced Portfolio Managers and investment professionals • Competing even more aggressively for proven investment talent • Increasing allocations to external managers to add capacity without expanding internal teams at the same pace • Managing the “digestion” period as new capital is deployed across strategies
The scale becomes even more interesting when leverage enters the picture. With JPMorgan previously estimating average leverage across multi-strategy funds at 645%, $500bn of incremental capital could theoretically support roughly $3.2tn of additional leveraged exposure.
That puts the talent question into perspective.
As multi-strategy platforms continue to scale, access to capital may not be the biggest constraint. The ability to find, attract and retain investment professionals capable of deploying that capital could be.
For PMs and investment teams, the next phase of growth across the multi-strategy space could make an already competitive talent market even more active.
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