The rich keep getting richer, or so it seems for endowments.

Over the last decade, colleges and universities with over $1 billion in their endowments have earned an average of 12% per year, compared to those with under $25 million, which earned an average of 7.9%, according to a recent survey by the National Association of College and University Business Officers.

Plymouth Meeting, Pa.-based Urdang Capital Management is readying to launch its first hedge fund, a long/short vehicle that invests in real estate investment trusts, according to a source close to the firm. Managers at the firm did not return calls seeking details, but one industry expert did give us his thoughts on whether he thinks it is a good time to be launching a REIT hedge fund.

Think London, the official foreign direct investment agency for London, is opening its first overseas office in New York in March in an effort to entice North American firms to do business in the British capital.

California-based asset manager SoHo Capital Partners has recently launched its first hedge fund, a macro absolute return fund. Frank Troise, managing partner, described the fund as “a throw back to the old Soros, Steinhardt macro-fund.”

Thirty-year-old entrepreneur Jared Polis, who has been called one of the richest young Americans, is reportedly readying to launch his own hedge fund. According to an article in the Rocky Mountain News, Polis, along with Joel Citron, expect to launch the fund in the second quarter with $100-200 million in assets under management.

• Vestar Capital Partners has closed its latest private equity fund, Vestar Capital Partners V, with total commitments of $3.7 billion. Approximately 130 institutional investors are participating in the fund, with was oversubscribed by $700 million. The buyout firm targets companies in the U.S. and Europe with valuations in the $100 million to $3 billion range.

Twelve years ago, then 34-year-old Boston native Jim Copell never dreamed of working in finance, much less owning his own asset management and research firm on Wall Street. He didn’t attend college; he never even finished high school. Next week, Copell, who spent four years with Bear Sterns as a floor trader on the New York Stock Exchange, is publishing his company’s first research reports. The reports will focus on individual industries, utilizing proprietary research based on a customized data mining system created by a team from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Garrett Smith, general partner at Dallas-based hedge fund firm Spinnerhawk Capital Management, which just passed its six-month-mark with net returns of 27.5%, has seen the highs and lows of the oil industry and expects crude to settle around $75 a barrel by year-end. According to Smith, Spinnerhawk’s fund has been taking in money each month since its inception in July, and now has $40 million in assets under management.

A record number of hedge funds closed up shop in the first three-quarters of last year, but as 484 exited the market, more than three times as many opened their doors, according to Chicago based Hedge Fund Research.

Chicago-based fund-of-funds firm Centripetal Asset Management is opening up its first fund, which invests in managed futures, to outside investors on Feb. 1. The Centripetal Dynamic Fund, which was launched in October 2005 with partner money, aims to attract conservative investors who are interested in hedge funds but are looking for steady returns.