The year 2008 was a disaster for The Children’s Investment Fund. Fiscal 2008 was anything but.
The London-based activist hedge fund’s profits soared 73% in the year-ended August 2008, more than doubling fund chief Christopher Hohn’s salary and nearly doubling the amount the firm donates to its namesake charity. The rest of 2008 did not turn out so well for TCI, which lost about 40% of its value as the hedge fund industry took a beating, and the firm warned that it would consequently do a good deal worse in fiscal year 2009.
TCI said profit available for sharing among its members rose to £555.9 million. Hohn himself took in £1.7 million, more than twice what he earned in fiscal 2007, while The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation’s share rose from £271.4 million to £484.3 million.
On the other hand, members of the firm not named Christopher Hohn saw their share fall to £44.3 million from £48.9 million, which may explain why three of the firm’s top executives, including all of its remaining founding partners not named Christopher Hohn, have left the firm over the past six months.
