Tory donor shares £268m payday from hedge fund
THE billionaire Tory donor Alan Howard shared in a £268m payout from his hedge fund last year as bets on interest rates reaped dividends.
The payout by Brevan Howard Asset Management was more than three times the £82m shared a year earlier, filings showed, and the biggest since 2019 when £440m was paid out to partners.
He is one of the UK’S richest men and is worth an estimated £1.75bn, according to The Sunday Times Rich List.
In 2022 he hired Lady Gaga, who is said to charge $1m (£780,000) for private shows, to sing at his wedding to modelturned-chef Caroline Byron in Lake Como. However, the wedding at Villa Olmo reportedly caused uproar among locals after Mr Howard, 60, paid €1.3m (£1.1m) to close the 18th-century palace and its gardens to the public for a month.
Mr Howard is a long-term supporter of the Tories and last year donated £1m to the Conservative Party, bringing his total cash support to £1.6m. The payout from Brevan Howard came after the fund’s profits soared by nearly 300pc last year.
The investment firm, which manages about $36bn, said operating profits were £415m in the year to March 2023, up from £105m a year earlier. It specialises in digital assets and global macro – meaning it bets on the world’s political and economic events.
The fund has capitalised on soaring interest rates, after central banks began increasing borrowing costs at the end of 2021 in an attempt to tame runaway inflation. It launched BH Digital, which invests in digital currencies, in September 2021. This gained 44pc last year, Bloomberg reported.
Mr Howard himself is a prominent investor in cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens. The Financial
reported in 2022 that he had at least 43 investments in crypto companies and projects.
Mr Howard co-founded Brevan Howard Asset Management, which is based in Jersey, in 2002.
He stepped down as chief executive in 2019, passing on the reins to Aron Landy, but has remained as the firm’s ultimate controlling party.
Brevan Howard Asset Management declined to comment.