World's top 10 hedge fund managers earn $20.1b in 2020

Millennium Management’s Israel Englander earned $3.8 billion last year, landing him the biggest payday of any hedge fund manager in 2020, showed data from Institutional Investor.

Englander more than doubled his $1.5 billion payday in 2019 and made $2 billion more than the previous year’s rich list leaders Chris Hohn and Jim Simons, while making gains of 26 per cent for his investors, reports Reuters.

The top 10 hedge fund managers globally earned $20.1 billion in 2020, a 50.2 per cent rise from $13.4 billion in 2019, against the backdrop of volatile markets amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Hedge funds made gains of 11.7 per cent on average in 2020 amid a huge sell-off in March and large economic shutdowns following the emergence of the novel coronavirus, according to data from Hedge Fund Research.

But top 10 averaged returns of 43 per cent in 2020, with Coatue Management making 65 per cent, Renaissance Technologies racking up 76 per cent and Tiger Global Management 48 per cent, the data from Institutional Investor showed.

All of the top 10 hedge fund managers made over $1 billion in 2020, compared with eight in 2019.

Renaissance Technologies’ James Simon earned $2.6 billion last year while Tiger Global Management’s Chase Coleman made $2.5 billion and Citadel’s Ken Griffin landed $1.8 billion.

Pershing Square’s Bill Ackman made up the last spot on the top 10, with a $1.4 billion pay cheque after not featuring on the list in 2019.