Brevan Howard made $900m for their investors in 2018, helping them rise two places on an all-time list of hedge fund managers ranked by net gains after fees.

The $6.3bn firm, co-founded by Alan Howard, has now generated $18.8bn for investors since launching in 2002, according to LCH Investments data.

Its rise from sixteenth to fourteenth in the annual LCH rankings caps a successful comeback year for the global macro manager.

Its flagship rose 12.3% after losing money in three of the previous four years and the firm was shortlisted for EuroHedge Firm of the Year 2018, but lost out to Selwood Capital.

Last year was the toughest for European hedge funds since 2011. Two UK managers, TCI and Egerton, dropped out of the Top 20 after breaking into it last year.

Caxton Associates, the $3.8bn macro shop founded in New York by Bruce Kovner and now led by British manager Andrew Law, fell a place to twentieth, having generated $200m for clients in 2018. Its gains since inception now stand at $14.9bn.

The top three spots in the LCH rankings remained unchanged from last year. Ray Dalio’s $133bn Bridgewater topped the table after an $8.1bn annual gain, while Soros Fund Management remained second with more than $43bn of client gains until the end of 2017. Ken Griffin’s $28.6bn Citadel placed third, adding $2.1bn last year and up $30.7bn since its 1990 launch.

Altogether, the top 20 managers made $23.2bn net of fees for their investors in 2018. This compares to total net losses made by all other hedge fund managers for their investors in 2018 of $64.2bn, according to LCH.

“This is an impressive performance,” said Rick Sopher, chairman of London-based LCH. “Most managers in the top 20 either managed to stay out of trouble when equity markets fell sharply toward year end, or had an investment approach that was not linked to the direction of equity markets.”

A spokesman for Brevan Howard declined to comment.

Brevan Howard rises on all-time ranking after comeback year on EuroHedge.