Institutional Investor's Alpha Magazine - April 2009 - (Page 37) Cover Story The Top 25 Moneymakers BROTHER, CAN YOU SP ARE A BILLION? Depression? What depression? Fears that the recession could turn into something far worse are wracking markets around the globe. Although the hedge fund industry didn’t escape the carnage of what many are calling the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, some managers are doing just fine, raking in money hand over fist. In 2008, in fact, four of them made more than the $1 billion that JPMorgan Chase & Co. paid for troubled investment bank Bear Stearns Cos. last spring in a shotgun merger orchestrated by the feds. James Simons of black-box fame at Renaissance Technologies Corp. earned a whopping $2.5 billion. He was trailed by John Paulson of Paulson & Co. ($2 billion), John Arnold of Centaurus Energy ($1.5 billion) and George Soros of Soros Fund Management ($1.1 billion). All but Arnold are repeat top-four finishers in Alpha’s eighth annual ranking of the world’s best-paid managers. Altogether the 25 highest-earning hedge fund managers made $11.6 billion, making 2008 the third-best year for the 25 biggest earners since Alpha began compiling the list. The group’s average take-home pay was $464 million. That number may pale next to last year’s, when the top 25 earned a record average of $892 million apiece, but the fact remains that $464 million is a kingly sum, especially during a year of global recession, stock market wipeouts and vanishing wealth. Times may be tough, but not for the 25 on our annual ranking of best-paid hedge fund managers. They earned, on average, $464 million each. By Stephen Taub APRIL 2009 • INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR’S ALPHA • 37
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