Hedge fund Marshall Wace increased average pay for its members by nearly five-fold after a year when profits more than doubled. However, despite the stellar performance and a fund-manager hiring spree, employees outside of the partnership were paid less.
Marshall Wace posted profits of £205.1m in the 12 months to February 2014, according to accounts filed this week on Companies House in the UK, compared to £83.2m in 2013. Last year’s profits were a vast improvement on 2012 performance anyway, which came in at £47.3m.
As ever with hedge fund LLPs, profits were divided exclusively between a small number of partners. Marshall Wace has 15 partners, but £71.6m was allocated to another legal body that officially houses the bulk of its employees. This means that £133.6m was shared between the remaining 14 partners, or an average payment of £8.9m. Last year, this figure was £1.85m.
But this generosity does not extend to the rank-and-file employees at Marshall Wace. It allocated £30.1m to staff costs for 2014, or an average of £330k for each of its 91 employees, down from £444k for the prior year.
Headcount in its back office and compliance divisions declined – from 62 people in 2013 to 49 in February – but it’s been hiring fund managers. It now has 42 fund management employees, compared to 30 in 2013 – or a 40% increase.
Founders Ian Wace and Paul Marshall both increased their personal wealth by £25m last year and now have a personal fortune of £300m apiece, according the Sunday Times Rich List.
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