Quant firm G-Research owner pays out £106m in wages to 49 staff
A parent company to secretive quant trading firm G-Research has posted a £106m wage bill to pay its 49 staff over eight months, the firm’s latest accounts show.
Braunford LLP, which was incorporated last year for “the provision of staff and agent services” and shares an address with G-Research, has posted its inaugural set of accounts to Companies House.
Braunford has been set up as a partnership, with two Cayman-based entities acting as its two partner owners. The firm is controlled by British financier Peter du Putron, while G-Research is run by Ben Leadsom, husband of former Conservative MP Andrea Leadsom.
The results suggest an average payout per employee of £2.2m over the eight-month period, implying annualised pay of roughly £3.2m.
It was not clear from Braunford’s accounts how G-Research performed over the same period. Another entity within the group corporate structure, called Island Research, turned over £620m in 2023, while another, called Trenchant, made £92m.
London’s best-known quant trading firm, XTX, made £1.3bn in profit earlier this year, with its billionaire founder, the outspoken Alex Gerko, pocketing £682m alone. The remaining £597m was shared between just 30 traders. Another firm, Quadrature Capital, recently turned a profit of £411m. Last year it made the biggest-ever donation to the Labour party.
G-Research in legal battle with former employee
The fresh figures come after G-Research took a former employee to court after it alleged he used an iPad to record confidential information as to the firm’s secret trading strategies before resigning to move jobs.
G-Research alleged ex-staffer Pierre Allain “unlawfully copied the [firm’s] confidential information and trade secrets in order to misuse that information for the benefit of his career.” Allain denies this.
The firm’s parent, Braunford, sought a three-year ban on Allain working for a rival, as well as extensive damages for breach of contract.
The firm reached a confidential settlement with Allain before the court case was due to begin.