Hedge fund Winton Capital sees profits edge up, but assets under advisement keep sliding

Hedge fund firm Winton Group, founded by businessman David Harding, announced today that its profits were up slightly after a disastrous 2016.

Pre-tax profits were up to £125m in 2017, after being slashed in half to £107m a year prior, as stronger investment performance helped to boost fees.

However clients were seemingly still wary after 2016’s poor results, as Winton’s assets under advisement dropped for the second year in a row to £28.5m.

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“Winton’s performance in 2017 was very satisfactory, buoyed by good returns across its range of investment strategies,” said Harding in notes to the report.

“These in turn were sustained by the continued strong uptrends in financial asset markets, which once again reached record highs during the year.”

However, Harding noted that a bear market may be soon to come which would likely make high returns less “easy to come by”.

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“Winton, therefore, is continuing to fix the roof while the sun is shining, by taking strict cost control measures and tightening its control and governance frameworks,” he said.

Average annual pay for employees dropped from £219,000 to £206,000, while directors’ aggregate remuneration almost halved from £4.9m to £2.6m in 2017.

Yet the hedgie has continued making investment, Harding was keen to emphasise, investing in projects from a data processing venture to a fledgling data-based music rights project.

According to the Sunday Times Rich List, published earlier this month, Harding took the biggest hit to his wealth last year of any hedgie on the rankings. His wealth declined £300m to £1bn, putting him joint fifth on the list.

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