There have been some big redundancies at Winton Capital Management Ltd.
Systematic hedge fund Winton Capital Management just released its accounts for 'Winton Capital Management Limited' (its U.K. and U.S. registered entity) for the year ending December 2018 and they suggest that all was not happy over at Hammersmith Grove (and its other seven offices globally). Staff there were jettisoned as revenues fell.
Winton Capital Management Ltd. ended 2018 with 79 fewer staff than it began - a reduction of 21% in its total headcount. After the cuts, it had 296 employees globally.
The redundancies coincided with big drops in the company's revenues and profits. Turnover fell 28% in 2018. Operating profit was down 42% and profit after tax was down 45%. Something clearly had to be done. Winton blamed declining assets under management and a resulting decline in management fees, plus lower performance fees for the drop in turnover and said it had cut costs accordingly (although profits fell all the same).
Despite the travails, the remaining staff were better rewarded last year. Average pay per head rose to £171k, up from £169k a year earlier. Nonetheless, this was rather a lot lower than Millennium Capital Management, which paid its investment staff an average of £543k ($660k) each in 2018.
Winton's founder, David Harding, has had a disappointing few years. He supported the remain campaign with a £3.5m donation in 2016 for the simple reason that Brexit was "quite unfriendly." Needless to say, that didn't work out as planned.
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