Single-manager hedge funds increased their reported assets undermanagement in the first half of 2012.

Assets under management increased by 5.23 percent to nearly $1.9trillion, according to a study by PerTrac, a provider of analytics,reporting and communications software for investmentprofessionals.

The study also found a continued decline in the reported assetsunder management of funds of hedge funds. The amount of moneyinvested in these investment vehicles, which allocate exclusivelyto hedge funds, declined by 4.92 percent during the first half of2012 to $425 billion. Part of the slide in these funds’ assets canbe attributed to the decline in the number of them reportinginformation to databases, which slipped by 3.81 percent to3,259.

Despite the drop for funds of hedge funds, the total, reportedamount invested within the hedge fund industry, including funds ofhedge funds and single-manager hedge funds (of which, commoditiestrading advisors - or CTAs - are considered a subset in this study)climbed to $2.317 trillion in the first six months of the year. Thetotal number of all funds reporting to databases also jumped by4.61 percent to 14,013, led by single-manager hedge funds, whoseranks swelled 7.46 percent to 10,754 funds. Most of the gains inthe number of single-manager hedge funds (75 percent) came fromsmall and start-up funds with less than $25 million in assets undermanagement.

These reported numbers suggest that asset allocators have agrowing interest in alternative investments and an increasingtendency toward investing directly in hedge funds, the study found.The data also points to the resilience of hedge funds as the end ofthe first half of 2012 marks three and a half years of steadygrowth.

“Although challenging economic conditions have impacted hedgefunds’ performance during the last few years, investors still seetheir long term value and are giving them a significant place intheir portfolios,” said Brendan Dolan, president of PerTrac.

When investors allocated to alternatives in 2012, they favoredthe largest funds. The “billion dollar club” of single-managerhedge funds, those that oversee more than $1 billion, saw assetsunder management increase to $1.146 trillion from $1.08 trillion atthe end of 2011. The billion-dollar-plus funds represented 60.6percent of all assets invested with single-manager hedge funds atthe end of the first half of 2012.

The PerTrac hedge fund study aggregates information from 11leading global databases. This provides for the most holisticpicture of the industry.

The study also found, among reporting funds, that:

The “billion dollar club” reigned supreme within funds of hedgefunds as well. Nearly 49 percent of assets were controlled by the3.24 percent of firms that each managed more than $1 billion.

CTAs posted healthy gains in assets of 6.05 percent this year,bringing their total to $438 billion under management at the end ofthe first half of 2012. The total number of CTA funds rose by 1.26percent from the end of 2011 to 1,528.

Forty-five CTAs reported managing in excess of $1 billion andthey accounted for 78.1 percent of that sector’s assets undermanagement.