Hedge fund Balyasny Asset Management doubled pay in 2020
Accounts have been published for Balyasny Europe Asset Management for the year ending December 2020, and they confirm what was known already: Balyasny pays very well indeed.
Last year, Balyasny spent £122m remunerating its 94 UK employees (after deducting social security payments), which amounts to an average payment of £1.3m ($1.8m) per head. This is generous, even by hedge fund standards, and was an increase of 103% on Balyasny's average London pay for 2019.
Balyasny's 2020 generosity came after it generated profits of nearly £24m for distribution between members (partners), up from just £1m in 2019, and following a loss of £519k in 2018. Balyasny Europe Asset Management's two members are the limited companies Balysny International Asset Management Limited and Balysny International Asset Management Limited. They each have the same two directors: Adam Finger, Balyasny's Chicago-based chief administrative officer, and Dina Guiguis, the London-based chief compliance officer.
Balyasny has bounced back after cutting 20% of its staff globally, including 13 investment teams comprising 40 people, in 2018. Last year, the fund reportedly added another 40 portfolio managers globally plus 22 new analysts in the UK in 2020 (although it presumably cut UK staff too, given that total headcount in the country increased by only four people according to the local country accounts).
In the notes accompanying its London accounts, Balyasny Europe Asset Management said its soaring profits were driven by "positive performance from the portfolio management team." It also revealed that it waived its bonus deferral scheme in 2020: previously, bonuses vested over three years; now they vest immediately.
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