The rapidly expanding hedge fund that pays nearly $400k, and wants bankers

If you’re an investment banking trader looking to move into a hedge fund, BlueCrest Capital Management is a good place to send your CV to. The firm has been expanding rapidly and new hires have largely come from investment banks’ prop trading teams as it looks to build both its credit and equity investment teams.

Earlier this year, it hired a team of traders from Nomura, and in recent months it’s been focusing its attentions on poaching from Credit Suisse.

Like most non-listed hedge funds in the UK, BlueCrest files its accounts on Companies House and has just released the figures for last year. 2013 has been a year of expansion for the hedge fund, but it’s also been bolstering its team since the beginning of 2012.

In 2011, it had 174 staff, a figure which rose to 250 last year – or a 43% increase. Over the last 12 months, the number of FCA-approved persons working at the fund has increased by over 32%, with Daniel Hiscox from Credit Suisse and Arnaud Seguret from SocGen the latest new recruits. At the end of 2012, there were 92 people working in front-office functions and this has now risen to 116.

Not surprisingly, compensation costs have also been on the up – from $71.6m in 2011 to £97.2m last year. This works out as $388.7k per employee on average, although, as the headcount figures above suggest, a smaller number of portfolio and traders are likely to take the lion’s share of this.

These remuneration figures also don’t include the pay of BlueCrest’s members, who shared $432.6m between them, down from $608.4m in 2011. There were 134 members in 2012, or an average payout of $3.2m.

And it’s into these senior positions that investment bankers are ending up. Both Hiscox and Seguret joined as members, as did Sid Gowda, who came from Credit Suisse, and George Tsimperopoulos, who was hired from Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Pre-tax profits at BlueCrest last year were $648m, up from $586.9m in 2011.