2015 was not a good year for Brevan Howard. Assets under management shrunk by 11%, performance was down and it axed 70 staff – admittedly, primarily in the back office – in November.
The $24.8bn hedge fund has just released its accounts for the year to March 2015. Even by this point in the year, staff numbers had declined by 30 people compared to the previous period and eight partners had left. Brevan employed 148 people in March 2015, compared to 178 at the same point in 2014, and had 37 partners, compared to 45 in the previous period.
It’s members’ remuneration came in at £76.4m ($112.1m) – or around £2m ($3m) per head – nearly double the £34.7m it paid its partners in 2014, or an average of £771k ($1.1m). The highest paid member received over £52m, up from £32m in 2014. Brevan also includes corporate partners among its members.
Revenues were up to £157m, an increase from £123.2m in 2014, and profits increased from £13.7m to £27.9m.
For the rank and file, average pay was £159.4k, down from £180.3k for the comparable period in 2014. Brevan Howard doesn’t break out front and back office employees, but the average payment was likely supressed by support staff.
Brevan Howard now has 76 people registered with the Financial Conduct Authority, as well as its (shrinking) office in Switzerland and other small international offices, but this figure has declined from 87 in January 2015.
Brevan Howard has been both hiring and firing, but senior people have continued to depart in recent months. Most recently, four senior traders – including former UBS managing director Riyaz Daya and Richard Oliver, who led its new training programme – left in November.
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