Multi-managers see record inflows in past 12 months: Goldman Sachs PB

Multi-managers tracked by Goldman Sachs have increased AuM by more than 25% in the past 12 months, as gains and a period of record inflows take the sector to new heights.

“It continues to be staggering in terms of the ability of this community to draw in more capital and still deliver those returns on ever increasing AuM denominators,” said Freddie Parker, Co-Head of Prime Insights and Analytics at Goldman Sachs, on AIMA’s podcast.

AuM now stands “well north” of $500bn as a result, with Goldman due to release their updated figures on the space in the coming weeks.

The findings suggest that the asset growth seen among the Multi-Strategy Power List tracked by AFI — a 12-strong group of $10bn+ firms, which grew 22% in the past 12 months — is mirrored among smaller and mid-size peers.

“The thing that continues to be remarkable about this community is [that] every time people call peak platform they go on and scale new heights,” said Parker. “This year has been no exception.”

AFI data shows rapid expansion

AFI’s own research points to similarly strong percentage growth among the industry’s largest multi-strategy managers, albeit across a different universe.

The 12 managers in AFI’s Multi-Strategy Power List increased combined assets from $373.2bn to $456.4bn over the 12 months to mid-2026, representing growth of 22%.

Schonfeld, Walleye, Point72 and Balyasny were among the fastest-growing firms, with each increasing assets by at least 45% over the period.

External managers add capacity

Parker said the gap between asset and employee growth, the latter rising at about 10-11%, does not necessarily mean firms will need to increase their internal headcounts at the same rate.

Multi-strategy platforms are increasingly allocating capital to external managers, adding investment capacity without those employees appearing in Goldman’s hedge fund headcount figures.

Parker added notes of caution on returns and equity market correlation.

“The last time we saw flows of this magnitude in 2022-23 it presaged a period of somewhat more muted returns,” he said on the podcast.

“The likelihood is that with the increase in AuM you will see some deployment pressures in the next 12 months. That continues to fuel the ongoing war for talent. It raises the spectre of a risk of these managers being under-allocated for some period of time.”

He added that March and July were “very challenging” for multi-managers, representing two of the three worst months on record (along with March 2020) tracked by GS Prime. He also noted that correlations with equity markets are drifting higher.