Hedge fund does well and cuts pay, another performs terribly and continues to hire

The headcount and compensation decisions of hedge funds are not for us mere mortals to question.

Egerton Capital, a hedge fund which had to stop taking new investments in September after its assets under management swelled by 80% to $11.4bn following a 19% gain on its long-only fund this year, has cut over £500k from its compensation pot and has six fewer staff than in 2012.

Meanwhile, BlueCrest Capital Management, a hedge fund which has lost over 10% in its key BlueTrend fund this year, has been hiring from investment banks like Nomura, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and is still capitalising on the fallout from SAC Advisor’s London office.

Egerton currently employs 39 people, 12 of whom work in an investment management role, according to accounts filed today on Companies House. It paid them, including bonuses, £3.2m for the year ended March 2013, or a mere £84.3k each, compared to the £3.77m it put aside for the 45 staff it employed at the same period in 2012.

It has indulged in some hiring this year, however.  Philip Niel, former general counsel at Fauchier Partners, joined in October as chief compliance officer.

Bluecrest, meanwhile, increased staff by 43% this year, and now employs over 250 people and allocated an extra $26m to compensation on the previous year. Most recently, it hired Lia Forcina and Alidod Shirinbekov from SAC’s now closed SAC office in November.

Winton Capital Management also endured a tough year, but said that it would continue to invest in bulking up its research team throughout this year.