Best-paid US hedge fund managers take home US$13 billion

Best-paid US hedge fund managers take home US$13 billion
Hedge funds lost money for their investors last year but the industry's top-paid managers had a banner year, with five men earning more than US$1 billion each in 2015, an industry survey released on Tuesday showed. (See the survey http://www.institutionalinvestorsalpha.com/HedgeFundRichList.html)

Posted 10 May 2016 20:50 Updated 10 May 2016 21:00

BOSTON: Hedge funds lost money for their investors last year but the industry's top-paid managers had a banner year, with five men earning more than US$1 billion each in 2015, an industry survey released on Tuesday showed. (See the survey http://www.institutionalinvestorsalpha.com/HedgeFundRichList.html)

Together, the 25 best-paid hedge fund managers took home US$13 billion, 10 percent more than the previous year. For many, computer models played a critical role in their success, according to Institutional Investor's Alpha's 15th annual ranking of the industry's highest-earning managers. (See the top-10 highest compensated hedge fund managers http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/1/1647/2814/HEDGEFUND-COMPENSATION-B.jpg)

Citadel's Kenneth Griffin, who started trading from his Harvard dormitory in the 1980s, and Renaissance Technologies' James Simons, a former code breaker who launched his fund in 1982, each took home US$1.7 billion in 2015 to tie for top honors. In 2014, they also took home 10 figures each but slightly less than in 2015, to claim the No. 1 and No. 2 spots.

Bridgewater's Raymond Dalio, Appaloosa Management's David Tepper and Millennium Management's Israel (Izzy) Englander rounded out the top five spots, with each man making more than an US$1 billion in 2015, the survey shows.

The higher payday came "despite the fact that roughly half of all hedge funds lost money last year," said Institutional Investor Editor Michael Peltz. He added that "about half of the 25 highest-earning hedge fund managers used computer-generated investment strategies to produce their investment gains."

The lucrative pay came as the average hedge fund lost 1 percent in 2015, with some managers, including David Einhorn, Larry Robbins and William Ackman losing much more than the high-earners took in. Ackman and Robbins, who ranked in the No. 4 and No. 7 spots in the previous Rich List did not make the recent roster.

Instead, John Overdeck and David Siegel, who run the data and technology-driven investment firm Two Sigma, made an appearance for the first time, earning US$500 million each. Their firm produced positive returns of 13 percent and 14.5 percent in two of its funds through November, according to return information seen by Reuters. The firm's assets were up more than 29 percent to US$31 billion as of Nov. 30.

Millennium's Englander, who has made the list previously, also reached a personal milestone by topping 10 figures with compensation of US$1.15 billion after his firm's multi-strategy funds gained 12.5 percent in 2015.

(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Dan Grebler)

- Reuters


- wong chee tat :)

Threadneedle to double Asia staff, eyes expansion

Reuters - Wednesday, November 17

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* plans to set up new offices in Japan and Taiwan
* to focus initially on distribution, marketing

SINGAPORE, Nov 16 - British fund manager Threadneedle plans to double its staff in Asia and open new offices in Japan and Taiwan as part of efforts to grow its regional presence, newly appointed Asia-Pacific chairman Raymundo Yu said on Tuesday.

"The first stage will involve distribution and marketing, then analysis, then investment management," said Yu, who was chairman for the Asia-Pacific region at Merrill Lynch from July 2000 until his retirement in December 2008.

Threadneedle is expanding into a fast-growing Asian region that is already home to global players such as Blackrock and Fidelity as well as large homegrown asset managers such as South Korea's Mirae and Australia's AMP .

Japan's Nikko Asset, which is keen to grow its non-Japan Asian business, on Tuesday announced the purchase of Australia's Tyndall Investments in a deal worth A$128.5 million. [ID:nSDYFME6BR]

Yu, 55, told Reuters the new offices in Japan and Taiwan would help complement Threadneedle's existing operations in Hong Kong and Singapore and double staffing to around 30 from 15 in the next 12 months.

Threadneedle, which manages around $100 billion in assets, is a unit of U.S. financial services firm Ameriprise Financial . Ameriprise also owns U.S.-based Columbia, which has about $350 billion.

The Threadneedle operations in Asia will market Columbia's asset management services.

- wong chee tat :)