Regal Funds Management, perhaps the king of the Australian hedge fund industry, took out the major ‘Best Alternative Manager of the Year’ award last week – not for the first time. The annual charity/awards night attracted more than 400 people in Sydney on September 12.

Simon Ibbetson, a long-time asset consultant and member of the awards’ judging panel, said Australia had some very good managers who had delivered “exceptional” performances, especially in the past year or so. “But while there have been great absolute returns, we are interested here mainly in their relative returns.”

Regal won the top hedge fund manager award in Australia in 2011, 2014 and 2016. It has also won a string of specific strategy awards, such as long/short and small cap, in both Australia and Asia.

Kim Ivey, a co-founder of Hedge Funds Rock, the original charity fund raiser, and the Australian Alternative Investment Awards, presented the awards at which he noted that, unlike some other industry awards, the sponsors had no involvement in the judging process. This was left to independent practitioners. The award winners and finalists were:

Best Emerging Manager
Realm Investment House (finalists: Coolabah Capital and FiftyOne Capital). Realm is a relative value manager founded in 2012.

Best Long/Short Fund
Australian Eagle Asset Management Trust (finalists: LHC Capital Australia and Regal Funds Management).

Best Market Neutral Fund
Regal Funds Management’s Tasman market-neutral fund (finalists: Karara Capital and Perpetual Pure Equity Alpha Fund).

Best Global Macro Futures Fund
Man AHL Alpha Fund (finalists: CFM and Fulcrum Absolute Return Fund).

Contribution to the Australian Hedge Fund Industry
Michael Gallagher (see separate report this edition).

Best Multi-Strategy Fund
Perpetual Income Opportunities Fund (finalists: Colonial First State Global Asset Management and Legg Mason and its affiliate Martin Currie).

Best Fixed Income Credit Fund
Alexander Asset Management for its Credit Opportunities Fund (finalists: Altius Bond Fund and Spectrum Strategic Income Fund).

Best Offshore Manager Operating in Australia
CFM, the French-based global quant manager specialising in alternative beta (finalists: Franklin Templeton and Partners Group).

Best Listed Alternative Investment Product
BeatShares Geared Australian Equities exchange-traded managed fund (finalists: BetaShares Geared Overseas fund and Schroders).

Best Investor Supporting Australian Alternative Managers
Crestone Wealth Management (finalists: Bennelong Funds Management and Koda Capital).

Best Private Debt Fund
This is a new award, won by Metrics Credit Secured Private Debt (finalists: Metrics diversified private debt and Manning private debt funds).

Best Alternative Manager of the Year
Regal Funds Management. The award was presented by Andrew Harrison, the chief executive for Australia of the night’s major sponsor, Mainstream (see separate report this edition).

– G.B.