Hedge fund partners to share huge £720m pot

RAINMAKERS at London hedge fund Marshall Wace are set to receive blockbuster payouts following a bumper year.

Twenty-three partners will share profits of nearly £723m – double the £322m made the previous year – after a surge in fees lifted revenues up 62pc to £1.5bn.

One unnamed partner will scoop around £322m, leaving the other 22 with an average of £18m each. The group of 23 includes another corporation.

Marshall Wace was founded in 1997 by Brexit-backing investor Paul Marshall, father of former Mumford & Sons band member Winston Marshall, and financier Ian Wace.

It manages around £50bn in assets and is considered one of the world’s top hedge funds.

Both Marshall and Wace are estimated to have fortunes worth over £600m.

The fund relies on computer analysis for a large portion of its investment strategies as well as tracking recommendations from investment bank analysts.

Investment banks and hedge funds saw a boom in the post-pandemic era as low interest rates and a resurgence in activity following the easing of lockdown restrictions sparked a flurry of deal-making and trading, allowing those involved in the process to rake in billions in fees and investment gains.

But these funds are now turning the other way as the spluttering global economy and instability unleashed by the war in Ukraine have left them searching for ways to profit from the downturn.

Back in September, it was reported that Marshall Wace was among several hedge funds betting that shares in large UK asset managers such as Abrdn and Ashmore would fall as economic fears hit their performance and left them struggling to attract new business.