Staff at Gartmore to get more

Employees at UK fund manager Gartmore are set for a grand payout on the back of the firm's burgeoning hedge fund business and ahead of a management buyout.

The value of workers' shareholdings grew to over 9m by the end of 2005, a 500% increase over 2004 levels. Citywire reports that 200 out of the 400 Gartmore staff have signed up to buy shares in the new equity scheme introduced as part of the buyout.

While group profits rose to 58m in 2005, much of the growth came from Gartmore's hedge fund activities. According to Financial News, Gartmore ranks 10 overall by assets under management ($8.3bn) in Europe.

Managing director Paul Feeney gave the nod to the firm's hedge fund business as well and told Citywire: "We had a profitable year - the value of the long-term equity went up and we had to mark some of that down to staff. But it's not just the management team that benefit, it's spread among a number of our employees."

Fund managers also earned large increases in performance-fee remuneration last year, which jumped from 39.5m in 2004 to 109m in 2005.