Hedge fund managers are new kings of high finance—they are earning huge salaries and enjoying lifestyles of the rich in London and New York ...

Hedge fund managers are new kings of high finance—they are earning huge salaries and enjoying lifestyles of the rich in London and New York similar to their financial predecessors—investment bankers—in the 1980s and 1990s.

The hedge fund boom might be going through a bit of a rough patch in recent months and some managers are likely to go to the wall, but the sector continues to attract the best and the brightest in the world of finance. WealthBriefing looks at some of the big salaries being paid to the top performers in London.

One of the most successful London-based hedge funds, GLG Partners, paid its boss Noam Gottesman £30 million ($54.7 million) in 2004. GLG is the largest hedge fund firms in Europe, with around $13 billion of assets under management. Mr Gottesman, an Israeli, was recently estimated by The Sunday Times as being worth around £200 million.

Mr Gottesman set up GLG ten years ago after leaving Lehman Brothers with three former private bankers from Goldman Sachs: Pierre Lagrange, Jonathan Green and Philippe Jabre. Each own 20 per cent of the firm. Lehman Brothers owns 15 per cent of the company and, according to the Wall Street Journal is in talks to buy the entire firm.

But Mr Gottesman is pushed out of first place by Louis Bacon, the American chairman of Moore Capital, a Mayfair-based hedge fund, which has around $9 billion of assets under management. A recent survey by the Times estimated Mr Bacon to be worth more than £300 million.

His flagship fund, Moore Global Investments—at $6 billion by far his largest—has returned 31 per cent annually after fees since its inception in 1990. Last year the fund was up 26 per cent. However, recent indications suggest the fund has come under considerable pressure.

Anthony Todd, who co-founded Aspect Capital, a hedge fund firm in 1997, is estimated to be worth £195 million.

Paul Marshall and Ian Wace joined up in 1997 to launch hedge fund group Marshall Wace Asset Management. Last year they shared a salary of around £26 million. And both are estimated to be worth £162 million. Paul Marshall is a major donor to the Liberal Democrats, one of the UK’s major political parties, having been a long-term friend of Charles Kennedy, the party’s leader.

Crispin Odey runs Odey Asset Management, a major hedge fund firm, and is estimated to be worth £160 million. Mr Odey, who set up Odey after leaving Barings in 1991, is married to Nichola Pease, chief executive of JO Hambro Capital Management.

Martin Hughes, who runs Toscafund, a hedge fund firm, is estimated to be worth around £154 million.

David Gorton’s hedge fund firm London Diversified Fund Management is estimated to be worth £400 million and his controlling stake is thought to be worth £150 million.

The two founders of Bluecrest Capital Management, Michael Platt and William Reeves, are estimated to be worth £150 million each. Hedge fund group Man paid Bluecrest £105 million to buy a 25 per cent stake in the firm in 2003.

One of the best known hedge fund groups, Man, has a fair few very rich senior managers. Its chairman Harvey McGrath is estimated to be worth at least £110 million. Its chief executive Stanley Fink paid himself a salary of £4.5 million last year, the highest among FT100 chief executives.

Stephen Butt, who set up Silchester International Investors after leaving Morgan Stanley in 1994, is estimated to be worth around £110 million.

Marathon Asset Management’s founders, William Arah, Jeremy Hosking and Neil Ostrer, paid themselves around £28 million last year. Mr Arah is estimated to be worth £100 million.