Top 10 hedge funds make $28bn

Investors in the top 10 hedge funds reaped returns of $28bn (£17.2bn) in the second half of last year alone, according to new data.

George Soros, who set up the Quantum fund in 1973, is at the top of the list having returned $35bn to clients, after fees, since inception, the FT reports.

He is followed by Paulson & Co which has netted $32.2bn since John Paulson set up the vehicle 1994. This is largely due to his prediction of the sub-prime crisis.

Analysis carried out by LCH Investments also revealed the total returns of the hedge funds is $2bn more than the net profits of investment banks Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Barclays and HSBC for the same timeframe.

Hedge funds have only a few hundred employees, the FT reports, while the six banks employ 1m people between them.

Investment banks are frequently compared to hedge funds, says the report, although the amount of capital deployed and sources of income vary wildly.