D.E. Shaw has hiked pay for its London staff to nearly £500k

Quant hedge fund giant D.E. Shaw hiked pay for its London staff by nearly 30% in the year to March 2017, and continued to hire after revenues surged by 48%.

Staff in the UK operation of the $43bn investment firm were paid £478k on an average pay per head basis in the year to 31 March 2017, according to newly-released accounts. This is up from £372k for the previous 12 months, or an increase of 28%.

It also spent £11.2m on compensation for its three partners, up from £7.9m in 2016, or an average payment of £3.73m. However, the highest paid member at the firm received £4.1m, up from £2.7m for the previous year.

D.E. Shaw’s London operation had a good 12 months. It posted revenues of £43m for the year ended 31 March 2017, which is a 48% increase on the £29.6m it achieved last year.

D.E. Shaw is a giant in hedge fund terms, with over 1,300 staff across offices in the U.S., Europe and Asia. It’s London office on Baker Street is comparatively tiny, but has been growing over the past 12 months. It has 35 employees in London, from 30 in 2016, 16 of which work in trading roles – an extra three people on the previous year.

The hedge fund has enjoyed an increase in assets under management as investors pour more money into quantitative hedge funds. Its $43bn in assets under management is up by $3bn since the end of last year and more than double the $21bn it managed in 2011. Two Sigma, another large quant hedge fund, has also increased the amount of money it manages drastically over the same period - from $6bn in 2011 to $50bn this year.

Two Sigma employs over 1,100 people globally - the majority in the U.S. - and has just 21 employees in London, according to its 2016 accounts released in August this year. However, this is an increase of 50% on 2015.

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