Marshall Wace pays out £84m as fees jump
HEDGE fund manager Marshall Wace paid out £83.6m to its members this year after the London firm enjoyed another year of soaring income.
Profits divided among members jumped 76 per cent to £83.6m in the year to February, compared to a 20 per cent rise to £47.3m in the previous year.
Almost 70 per cent of this sum, or £57.6m, was distributed to Marshall Wace Asset Management, which employs around 100 staff at its offices on the Strand.
The rest was handed out to 14 other members, working out at an average of £1.8m each, accounts filed at Companies House show.
Fee income was up by more than 70 per cent to £104.4m in the year. Of this, management fees were up 52 per cent to £56.7m, reflecting a rise in assets under management, while performance fees more than doubled to £47.6m.
Around 94 per cent of these fees were generated outside of the UK, the accounts showed. The long-short equity specialist had $9.54bn in assets under management at the end of February. Its assets have since risen to $13.4bn (£8.2bn) at the start of November.
Marshall Wace, which was set in 1997 by Liberal Democrat policy adviser Paul Marshall and former derivatives trader Ian Wace, is one of the largest hedge fund groups in the world.
The firm revealed an investment in peer-to-peer lender Exchange Associates in October. Marshall Wace bought the company from Liberum Capital and hopes to act as a business incubator, helping to list a peer-to-peer funding vehicle on the London stock market in the coming months.Marshall Wace declined to comment on its accounts yesterday.