The survey, which was first brought by the Financial Times, comes after two of the world’s largest pension funds, Calpers in the US and the Dutch healthcare pension fund PFZW, sold off all their hedge funds exposure worth respectively $4bn and €4bn.
Despite average returns of only 3.6% in 2014, buying sentiment remains net positive, with the majority of
respondents keeping their allocations stable. The findings more or less correspond with EIE’s sentiment surveys with European fund selectors. On average, 40% of European fund selectors are looking to increase their absolute return exposure, while only 7% say they will decrease their allocation.
However, it must be noted that Preqin’s and EIE’s research samples are not exactly comparable, as only slightly less than half of our readers are institutional investors. Our absolute return category also captures a wider range of investment vehicles than just hedge funds.
