Payday for Artemis partners despite £1.4bn drop in assets

Partners at Artemis Investment Management received a whopping £56.8m payout for 2023 despite a drop in profit and assets under management at the fund house.

The firm, which has 27 partners, suffered a six per cent slide in assets under management to £23.3bn last year, down from £24.7bn, according to accounts filed with Companies House.

Meanwhile, profit fell from £79.5m to £70.9m.

Despite the £1.4bn fall in its managed assets, the portion of profit paid to partners ticked up to 80 per cent through the year. The number of partners at the firm also dropped from an average of 31 in 2022 to 27 by the end of 2023.

While the number of Artemis employees at the firm increased throughout the year, from 181 to 197, the amount spent on wages per employee at the firm slid from £151,000 per employee to £142,000.

Air miles also shot up employees flew almost a million kilometres, up from around 700,000 the year before.

Artemis is 60 per cent owned by American financial services firm Affiliated Managers Group, with the other 40 per cent owned by partners at the firm.

Two years ago, Fenchurch Advisory Partners was appointed by Artemis “to explore strategic options” for the company.

Rumours that Artemis was considering a sale to Liontrust emerged in March, after news leaked about secret talks between the two asset managers.

However, insiders from both companies have publicly denied there were ongoing conversations about a sale.