Chris Hohn, founder of TCI Fund Management, saw a significant pay cut of £233m this year despite his hedge fund donating around £340m to charitable causes, according to a report by MSN.
According to filings with Companies House, Hohn’s earnings dropped to $53m (£42m), down from the $346m (£276m) he received in 2023.
TCI, which counted former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on its team from 2006 to 2009, was founded in 2003 with a philanthropic mission in mind.
Initially, a portion of the hedge fund’s profits was directed toward the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, a charity set up by Hohn and his ex-wife. Although TCI ended its formal relationship with the foundation in 2014, it has continued to donate to the organisation, which focuses on issues like HIV prevention and child malnutrition.
Hohn’s pay was notably high in 2022, reaching a record-breaking £575m, the largest sum ever given to an individual in the UK. However, in 2024, TCI’s charitable giving increased significantly, with the hedge fund donating $427m – more than five times the previous year’s contributions.
TCI, which manages $57bn (£45bn) in assets, posted an operating profit of $229m (£182m) this year, a decrease from $456m (£362m) in 2023.
The hedge fund also paid $57m (£45m) in corporate tax despite having just six employees. Known for its aggressive activist investing, TCI has built stakes in major US companies such as Alphabet and Microsoft.
In 2023, Hohn was recognised as “the UK’s most generous man” by The Sunday Times Rich List, having donated over $4bn to charity over his lifetime.
He is also the largest individual donor to the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion.
Reflecting on his support for the group, Hohn said in 2019: “I recently gave them £50,000 because humanity is aggressively destroying the world with climate change, and there is an urgent need for us all to wake up to this fact.”
