Brevan Howard’s Main Hedge Fund Gains 27% in Best Year on Record

(Bloomberg) -- Brevan Howard Asset Management has recorded its best year since the hedge fund firm began investing nearly two decades ago.

The main fund at billionaire Alan Howard’s firm was up 27.4% last year, the most since 2003, according to an investor letter seen by Bloomberg. The Brevan Howard Master Fund, which managed $4.3 billion at the end of November, finished the year with a 3% gain.

Most of the main fund’s gains came in March as the pandemic roiled markets. It made money through interest-rate bets, option trading in equity and credit indexes and from oil, according to the letter.

A spokesman for the Jersey-based investment firm declined to comment.

Brevan Howard is making up lost ground after years of mediocre returns shrunk its assets by more than 80% from a 2013 peak to about $6.4 billion two years ago. Clients are now returning, lured by improved performance and as rising volatility creates money-making opportunities for macro hedge funds. Brevan Howard’s assets rose to about $11.4 billion at the end of November.

The firm’s rebound was also fueled by a more than 100% gain in a hedge fund earlier last year that Howard personally manages. Full-year returns for the AH Master Fund, which invests money for the main hedge fund, the billionaire’s own cash and for a few external investors, is not known.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.