Institutional and alternative assets contributed a third of the growth in assets under management at John Duffield's UK funds group New Star during the first six months of the year, as overall assets increased by 17% to £24.7bn (€36.7bn).

The UK-listed group, which is chaired by founder John Duffield, increased alternative assets under management from £1.2bn to £1.5bn over the six months to the end of June. Eighty percent of its single-manager hedge fund assets were in hedge funds ranked in the top two quartiles relative to their peer groups for the five months ended 31 May 2007.