Hedge Fund Profits Declined 30% Last Year, Citigroup Says

The outlook for hedge funds, already closing at the fastest pace since the financial crisis, is about to worsen, according to Citigroup Inc.

Industrywide profits in 2014 declined 30 percent from a year earlier to $21.9 billion because of poor performance, the bank estimated in a report. Hedge funds returned an average of 1.4 percent in 2014, their sixth straight year of underperforming U.S. stocks, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, and the worst since 2011.