Billionaire Tory donor receives £56m from hedge fund, accounts suggest

The billionaire Tory donor Alan Howard collected £56m last year from the hedge fund he co-founded as the profits shared between its financiers soared, accounts filed at Companies House suggest.

Brevan Howard Asset Management LLP is based in Jersey and controlled by Howard, who is one of Britain’s richest men, via a Cayman Islands bank.

Its accounts show that the partnership earned fees of £169m for its in-demand services as an asset manager. It recorded a £130m profit after expenses, with a further £43m deducted to reflect the cost of the services and staff provided to the LLP by a related business.

That left an £87m pot to be shared among the 17 members who own and operate the business, including Howard. The company distributed £79.8m of this in what it described as “contractual and discretionary profit allocations […] in consideration for services provided”.

The highest-paid member received almost £55.8m, up from £29.9m the previous year. Howard stepped down as chief executive in 2019 but still acts as an investment manager for the company and is likely to be its highest-paid member.

Brevan Howard, which serves wealthy clients from offices in London, New York, Geneva, Jersey, Hong Kong, Edinburgh and Singapore, declined to comment on the identity of the highest-paid member.

Howard is the 107th richest man in the UK, according to the 2021 Sunday Times rich list, with assets worth £1.5bn.

Electoral Commission records show that he has used his vast wealth to donate £352,854 to the Conservative party since 2019 alone, including a £250,000 gift made in December 2020.

Howard has also been a frequent donor to charitable causes, including homelessness and Holocaust education.

He has said that he prefers to keep a “low profile”.

The former bond trader, 58, founded Brevan Howard in 2002 and the firm grew to become the world’s fourth-largest hedge fund within seven years, with £20bn under management.

In autumn last year, it became the latest major global financial institution to announce a major push into cryptocurrency.

The company said it would “significantly expand” BH Digital, a division devoted to cryptocurrency and digital assets, according to the Financial Times.

At the time, Aron Landy, the fund’s chief executive, spoke of the “huge diversity of opportunities within the digital asset space and the significance of this to long-term macro investors”.

Asked about its accounts and pay arrangements, Brevan Howard declined to comment.