A $38M payday for Soros’s U.K. investment unit

Firm has paid more than $198.2M in compensation since set up in 2008

The investment unit for George Soros’s family office in the U.K. expects to pay $38.2 million (U.S.) to its partners and staff within the next three years as part of long-term compensation plans.

SFM U.K. Management, which increased its employees to about 20 last year, has set aside $18.36 million for 2020 under compensation commitments that vest over several years, up from an earmarked payment of $11.1 million in 2019.

The firm’s money managers separately received $45.6 million for their performance last year after profits more than doubled, according to filings.

The London-based firm has paid more than $198.2 million in compensation since it was set up in 2008, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

It has about five partners, including former Cazenove Capital fund manager Neil Pegrum.

“Members are remunerated from the profits of the LLP and are required to make their own provision for pensions and other benefits,” the firm said in its 2019 accounts filed this month.

With about $25 billion of assets, Soros Fund Management is one of the largest globally.

Its pay is significantly higher than that of most executives at family offices.

Soros, 90, has one of the best long-term records in the hedgefund industry.

In1992, he and his chief strategist, Stan Druckenmiller, made $1 billion shorting the British pound, cementing his reputation as a preeminent macro investor.

His Quantum fund returned an average of 20 per cent annually until 2011, when the billionaire returned outside investors’ money and converted his firm into a family office.

Soros has used his vast wealth to become one of the world’s largest funders of groups promoting justice, democracy, human rights and progressive politics through his Open Society Foundations.

He’s poured billions into his philanthropic efforts, and most of his firm’s assets now belong to the foundations rather than to the Soros family.

A spokesperson for Soros — who is worth $7.6 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index — didn’t respond to requests for comment.