New York (HedgeCo.Net) According to Preqin’s 2015 Global Alternatives Report, the global alternative assets industry is closing in on $7 Trillion in total assets. This total includes hedge funds, private equity, private debt, real estate and infrastructure funds, but it was the hedge fund industry that really drove the total up in 2014.

The final tally at the end of 2014 was $6.91 trillion. The report showed inflows to the industry of $690 billion in 2014 and that was up from $648 billion in 2013. The hedge fund industry saw the biggest growth in assets with $360 billion in asset growth.
The private equity industry also saw substantial growth with $300 billion in asset inflows and those numbers reflected are from June 2013 through June 2014. The growth by year end 2014 in all likelihood sent the alternative assets total over the $7 trillion mark.

Looking at each sub-sector of the alternative asset industry in terms of the growth in percentages rather than total assets, we see that infrastructure funds grew the most at 16%. Hedge fund assets grew by 13.5%, real estate funds grew by 12.9% and private equity grew by 8.5%.

Rick Pendergraft
HedgeCoVest Investment Analyst