WEST PALM BEACH, FL (www.hedgeco.net) – Hedge Funs now own about 3.8 percent of the equity markets of the United Kingdom according to new reports from State Street Global Advisors. Rick Lacaille,State Street Global Advisors European chief investment officer said, �We estimate the hedge fund universe at $1 Trillion, of which 50% will be involved in equity strategies of various types.�

Lacaille further said, �Of this, the UK represents about 10% of the investable universe and the average leverage in this sector we estimate at 1.5. This would result in hedge fund investments in the U.K. equity market to be roughly 3.8% of the market, although there is the potential for this to rise rapidly if opportunities for value added in the U.K. were significant.�

Lacaille also explained, �As mergers get underway, the share register tends to shift in favor of the specialist hedge funds that have a deeper understanding than the rest of the sector in the legal risks and probability and payoff of the different outcomes.� Lacaille believes that this shift in the percentage of foreign ownership of UK firms lends credence to speculations that concentrated ownership is declining. Lacaille estimates that pension fund managers have significantly increased their hedge fund exposures from about 32.3 percent in 1998 to about 38.4 percent in 2004.

In the UK according to him, the domestic component of equity portfolio has seen its sharpest drop, from more than 71 percent in 1998 to less than 60 percent in 2004.

Paul Oranika
Editor-in-Chief
HedgeCo.Net
Email: Editor@hedgeco.net

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