Citadel, the hedge fund, paid an average of $1.2m in London last year, and hired investment staff
It's been the case for long years now that when hiring happens in financial services, it typically happens most in the middle and back office as organisations stock up on technologists and support staff. Citadel's various UK entities are bucking that trend.
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As we reported earlier this week, UK Citadel's entities have been filing their accounts with Companies House. The final set of 2025 accounts for Citadel Management (Europe) II, which is the managing corporate member that employs most of Citadel's people in London, have now been unveiled. In combination with the rest, they show Citadel's UK operations stocking up on investment professionals last year, while adding fewer support staff.
While this happened, Citadel (unsurprisingly) hiked average pay. The firm has three entities in London which disclose compensation and hea count spending: Citadel Management (Europe) II, Citadel Management (Europe) III and Citadel Enterprise Europe Services Limited.
They all do something a bit different. Citadel Enterprise Europe Services is the admin arm. Citadel Management Europe II provides services related to investment management. Citadel Management Europe III provides services and support relating to investment management, including algorithm design.
This is what pay at each body looked like last year:
If you work for Citadel in London, therefore, you want to work within Citadel Management (Europe) II (CMEL II), which employs the investment staff and pays $2m a head. But even Citadel's support entity (CEES) pays nearly $600k a head. Both are averages.
This is what Citadel pays in wages and salaries. The real money at the firm in London, however, is paid to its 24 partners. Last year, they shared $337m in profits or an average of $14m each. That's a lot, but less than in 2024 when they received an average of $21m each.
Citadel's reduced pay for London partners followed a 29% decline in group operating profit in the UK last year, which the firm said was the result of lower "performance based revenues." At the same time, operating expenses rose 32%, driven partly by paying all the new staff.
Citadel globally generated returns of 10.2% last year, versus 15.1% in 2024.
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