Ranking the Top 20 Hedge Funds in London by AUM

Ranking the Top 20 Hedge Funds in London by AUM

London is the second-largest hedge fund centre in the world after New York, with combined assets under management measured in the hundreds of billions of dollars. The firms below represent the leading hedge fund managers operating from London, ranked broadly by assets under management. The list covers the multi-strategy giants, the equity long-short specialists, the global macro houses, and the systematic trading firms that together define the London hedge fund landscape.

The 20 firms are listed in alphabetical order. None of the firms have paid for inclusion. Information presented reflects publicly available sources including AIMA (the Alternative Investment Management Association), FCA Financial Services Register entries, and industry coverage. AUM figures fluctuate with market conditions and capital flows and the rankings reference indicative scale rather than precise data points.

How This List Was Compiled

Inclusion criteria. The firm operates a hedge fund strategy from a London office with primary investment decision-making in the UK. The firm is FCA-authorised. The firm manages capital across one or more hedge fund strategies — long-short equity, global macro, multi-strategy, systematic, credit, event-driven, or relative value. The list spans the full size range from the largest multi-billion AUM platforms through to the focused specialist managers operating in single strategies.

The Firms

Adelphi Capital

London-headquartered European equity long-short hedge fund firm. Adelphi has been one of the longest-established European-focused equity hedge fund managers, with a focus on fundamental long-short investing in European equity markets. The firm operates a focused strategy approach with concentrated equity positions.

BlueBay Asset Management

London-headquartered fixed income and credit specialist, part of RBC Global Asset Management. BlueBay manages credit and emerging market fixed income strategies with hedge fund-style absolute return mandates alongside traditional long-only credit. The firm is one of the largest London-based credit-focused alternative managers by AUM.

BlueCrest Capital Management

London-headquartered global macro and fixed income hedge fund firm founded by Michael Platt. BlueCrest now operates primarily as a family office investing the founders’ capital, having returned external capital in 2015. The firm continues to be one of the most prominent UK-headquartered global macro and systematic trading operations.

Brevan Howard Asset Management

London-headquartered global macro hedge fund firm founded by Alan Howard. Brevan Howard is one of the largest macro-focused hedge fund managers globally, with multi-billion AUM across discretionary and systematic macro strategies. The firm has been one of the most prominent UK-based macro houses for over two decades.

Capula Investment Management

London-headquartered fixed income relative value and global macro hedge fund firm. Capula focuses on government bond markets and relative value strategies with multi-billion AUM. The firm has been one of the most successful UK-based fixed income relative value managers over multiple cycles.

Cevian Capital

European activist investment firm with offices in London, Stockholm, and Zurich. Cevian takes constructive activist positions in large European listed companies, typically with multi-year investment horizons. The firm is one of Europe’s leading activist investors and has driven governance and strategic change at many of the largest European listed firms.

CQS

London-headquartered multi-strategy credit hedge fund firm, owned by the Manulife Investment Management group following acquisition. CQS focuses on credit strategies across structured credit, convertible bonds, asset-backed securities, and corporate credit. The firm has been one of the most prominent London-based credit hedge fund managers for over two decades.

Egerton Capital

London-headquartered global equity long-short hedge fund firm. Egerton is one of the largest equity-focused hedge fund managers operating from London, with a fundamental long-short equity strategy across developed market large-cap equities. The firm has been one of the most consistent performers among UK-based equity hedge funds.

Eisler Capital

London-headquartered multi-strategy and macro hedge fund firm founded by Edward Eisler, former head of currencies at Goldman Sachs. Eisler operates a multi-strategy platform with significant focus on macro and rates trading. The firm has been one of the fastest-growing London hedge fund platforms by AUM since its founding in 2015.

Garda Capital Partners

Multi-strategy hedge fund firm with significant London operations. Garda focuses on fixed income relative value, macro, and systematic strategies with multi-billion AUM. The firm has expanded its London team meaningfully alongside its US base.

GLG Partners

London-headquartered multi-strategy hedge fund firm, part of Man Group following acquisition. GLG operates equity long-short, credit, macro, and event-driven strategies across multiple funds. The firm operates as part of the wider Man Group platform but retains a distinct strategy approach.

Hayfin Capital Management

London-headquartered alternative credit investment firm. Hayfin focuses on European private credit, direct lending, and special situations alongside hedge fund-style credit strategies. The firm is one of the largest European-headquartered credit specialists with multi-billion AUM across funds.

Lansdowne Partners

London-headquartered equity long-short hedge fund firm. Lansdowne has been one of the most prominent UK-based equity hedge fund managers for several decades, with a focus on fundamental long-short investing in developed market equities. The firm operates multiple strategy variants under a long-established investment process.

Makuria Investment Management

London-headquartered emerging markets specialist hedge fund firm. Makuria focuses on emerging market fixed income, distressed debt, and special situations strategies. The firm is one of the more specialist London-based emerging markets-focused hedge funds.

Man Group

FTSE 250-listed global active investment manager headquartered in London. Man Group operates across multiple hedge fund strategies including AHL (systematic), GLG (multi-strategy), Numeric (quantitative equity), and other strategy lines. Man Group is the largest publicly listed hedge fund firm globally with multi-tens-of-billion AUM and one of the largest UK-headquartered alternative asset managers.

Marshall Wace

London-headquartered equity long-short and systematic hedge fund firm, majority-owned by KKR. Marshall Wace operates fundamental equity long-short strategies alongside systematic and quantitative strategies. The firm is one of the largest equity-focused hedge fund managers globally with multi-tens-of-billion AUM.

Pelham Capital

London-headquartered European equity long-short hedge fund firm. Pelham focuses on fundamental long-short investing in European mid-cap and large-cap equities, with concentrated portfolios and a long-term investment horizon. The firm is one of the more focused European equity hedge fund managers operating from London.

Polar Capital

AIM-listed UK alternative and traditional asset manager. Polar Capital operates hedge fund and long-only strategies across sector-focused funds including technology, healthcare, financials, and emerging markets. The firm operates as a multi-boutique platform with focused investment teams across each strategy.

Sloane Robinson

London-headquartered global emerging markets hedge fund firm. Sloane Robinson focuses on emerging market equities through fundamental long-short and long-only strategies. The firm has been one of the longest-established UK-based emerging market specialist hedge fund managers.

Toscafund Asset Management

London-headquartered hedge fund firm focused on UK and European mid-cap equities and special situations. Toscafund operates concentrated long-short equity strategies with a particular focus on the UK domestic equity market. The firm has been a prominent UK-focused hedge fund manager for over two decades.

Senior Hiring at London Hedge Funds

Hedge fund senior recruitment has its own dynamics that differ from traditional asset management or banking executive search. The defining characteristics are the importance of investment track record, the small team sizes typical of hedge fund firms, and the alignment between individual performance and firm-level outcomes. A senior hedge fund hire typically brings either an investment track record portable to the firm’s strategy, or a non-investment specialism (operations, compliance, technology, distribution) where the candidate’s role enables the investment team rather than competing with it.

Three senior hiring patterns repeat across the firms above. The first is the senior portfolio manager hire — bringing in a PM with a track record in a specific strategy or geography, often with the expectation that the PM will run a meaningful part of the firm’s capital. The second is the COO or operational leadership hire — senior operations, compliance, technology, or finance leadership that scales the firm’s infrastructure. The third is the senior distribution and investor relations hire — connecting the firm to allocator capital across institutional, family office, and wealth management channels.

Board and governance appointments at hedge fund firms typically draw on senior executives with prior asset management, hedge fund, or banking experience alongside independent NEDs with audit committee, compliance, and operational governance experience. The complexity of hedge fund governance — covering regulatory compliance under the Senior Managers and Certification Regime, investor reporting, operational due diligence, and risk management — drives the time commitment for these roles.

How Hedge Fund Senior Recruitment Works

Senior hedge fund appointments at SMF level run through a retained executive search process. The combination of regulator engagement, confidentiality during the search, and the long Form A approval timeline does not fit a contingency model. The search firm typically partners with the firm’s CEO, Chair, or board committee on the brief and delivery.

Portfolio manager and senior investment hire mandates often run through specialist hedge fund search firms with deep candidate networks in the relevant strategy area. The candidate pool is narrow — typically experienced PMs at competing hedge funds or senior buy-side investment professionals at long-only asset managers — and the assessment criteria are different from operational hires, with track record verification and reference checking playing a central role.

COO, CFO, Head of Compliance, and operational senior appointments often draw on a broader pool that includes senior operations professionals from competing hedge funds, prime brokerage, fund administration, and increasingly fintech operations. The candidate’s ability to operate at the pace of a hedge fund environment — making decisions quickly, working closely with a small investment team, scaling infrastructure efficiently — is often a more important assessment criterion than the breadth of corporate experience that might matter at a traditional asset manager.