AR Unveils the Highest Earning Hedge Fund Managers of 2009

Annual Ranking Shows Leading Moneymakers Earned More Than $25 Billion; Appaloosa's David Tepper Is No. 1 With $4 Billion


NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - April 1, 2010) -  The 25 hedge fund managers on the annual Rich List of AR: Absolute Return + Alpha earned a total of more than $25 billion -- more than double the $11.6 billion of the top 25 in 2008.

The complete ranking and accompanying commentary can be found in the April issue of AR and online at www.absolutereturn-alpha.com.

The earnings of the richest hedge fund managers also exceed the record of $22.3 billion that the top 25 made in 2007. And last year -- in another record -- seven individuals brought home more than $1 billion each.

Appaloosa Management's David Tepper climbed to first place on the list this year, earning $4 billion, which was even higher than the $3.7 billion that John Paulson of Paulson & Co. made when he ranked No. 1 in 2007 after making his famous bet on the housing bust.

Others who made the Rich List with more than $1 billion last year are George Soros of Soros Fund Management, with $3.3 billion; James Simons of Renaissance Technologies, $2.5 billion; John Paulson, $2.3 billion and Steve Cohen of SAC Capital Advisors with $1.4 billion.

This year's Rich List marks the ninth year of the ranking, previously published in Alpha.  To be included on the list, a manager had to earn at least $350 million. In 2001, the first year of the ranking, the combined income of the top hedge fund managers was less than $5 billion -- just a little more than Tepper made in 2009. At the time, 11 hedge fund managers made more than $1 million each. George Soros was No. 1, with $700 million.

The list of the 25 top managers of 2009 appears in the April issue of AR. Full results are available online at www.absolutereturn-alpha.com.

About AR
AR magazine, and its online offering at www.absolutereturn-alpha.com, features a fresh and much-needed link between the hedge fund industry, its users and those who provide advisory, financial, and technological services to hedge funds. AR is a service of Institutional Investor and HedgeFund Intelligence, divisions of Euromoney Institutional Investor, the international publishing and information company.

See www.absolutereturn-alpha.com for more information.

Contact Information:

Contact
Michelle Celarier, Editor, AR
(t) +1 212-224-3021
mcelarier@absolutereturn.net

April 10 issue of AR magazine