Millennium Management Is Levered To The Hilt

And that, by one measure, makes it the biggest hedge fund in the universe.

This year’s ranking is led by Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, with $198.2 billion of gross assets — a measure that includes leverage. Bridgewater Associates, with $139.3 billion of gross assets in hedge funds, placed second, followed by Citadel ($107.6 billion), BTG Pactual Asset Management ($78.9 billion) and SAC Capital ($75.4 billion). Last year, the league table was topped by Citadel, followed by Millennium, Bridgewater, Pimco and SAC….

The top-200 list is based on assets managed only in hedge funds, not in separate accounts or other vehicles. As a result, the ranking understates the size of firms that have substantial separate-account businesses. Bridgewater, for example, manages $183.7 billion of regulatory assets overall. And because the SEC asks managers to report gross assets, some operations are greatly magnified by the use of leverage. Millennium, for instance, manages just $16.9 billion of equity capital. By comparison, Bridgewater reports $142 billion of client assets in its ADV “brochure” — making it by far the world’s largest hedge fund manager on a net basis.

Among the top 200, nearly three-quarters reported increases in gross fund assets — many quite substantial. Millennium, for example, saw its gross assets increase by 66.6%, from $119 billion. And since the New York firm runs all of its capital via a single entity called Millennium Partners, that vehicle weighs in as the biggest single-manager hedge fund measured by gross assets.

Big Get Bigger in Annual Manager Ranking [Hedge Fund Alert]