New York

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