Partners at Alan Howard’s hedge fund share £120m pandemic bounty

Hedge fund chief Alan Howard earned over £55m after his business profited from a series of bets during the first year of the pandemic.

Company filings show that Brevan Howard Asset Management's 17 partners received £43.4m in remuneration and shared £79m in profits for the year to March, up from an £18.3m profit split between members a year earlier.

Brevan Howard's best paid member, understood to be Mr Howard, received £55.7m compared to £30m the year before.

Mr Howard, one of London's best-known hedge fund managers and a large donor to the Conservative party, recorded his most successful year in 2020. His main fund rose 27pc, the best performance since 2003 as bets on interest rates, share options and oil paid off, investors were told in January.

Investors have flocked to the fund on the back of the performance. Brevan Howard Asset Management received $3bn in new cash commitments, taking the value of its investments to $20bn, Bloomberg reported last October.

Mr Howard, whose net worth is estimated at $2.8bn, set up the business with Chris Rokos and three others in 2002. Mr Rokos, who went on to set up his own business, Rokos Capital Management, took home £509m for the year to March.

The latest set of accounts highlights how well money managers fared in the first year of the pandemic after performance was boosted by market chaos. Terry Smith, one of Britain's best-known fund managers, bagged a payout of at least £35.7m for the year to March while takeover boutique Robey Warshaw's top banker pocketed a £20m windfall as the crisis triggered a rush of deals.

New filings for City tycoon Michael Spencer's private investment vehicle IPGL also show how his fortunes changed in the first year of the crisis, with profits reaching £59m for the year to March compared to a loss of £12m a year earlier.

The amount he donated to the Tory party also plummeted to £170,000 compared to just over £1m a year earlier. A spokesman said the higher figure for the year to March 2020 was due to it being an election year.

Brevan Howard declined to comment on its accounts.