By Maiya Keidan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Millennium Management's Israel Englander earned $3.8 billion last year, landing him the biggest payday of any hedge fund manager in 2020, showed data from Institutional Investor.
Englander more than doubled his $1.5 billion payday in 2019 and made $2 billion more than the previous year's rich list leaders Chris Hohn and Jim Simons, while making gains of 26% for his investors.
The top 10 hedge fund managers globally earned $20.1 billion in 2020, a 50.2% rise from $13.4 billion in 2019, against the backdrop of volatile markets amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Hedge funds made gains of 11.7% on average in 2020 amid a huge sell-off in March and large economic shutdowns following the emergence of the novel coronavirus, according to data from Hedge Fund Research.
But top 10 averaged returns of 43% in 2020, with Coatue Management making 65%, Renaissance Technologies racking up 76% and Tiger Global Management 48%, the data from Institutional Investor showed.
All of the top 10 hedge fund managers made over $1 billion in 2020, compared with eight in 2019.
Renaissance Technologies' James Simon earned $2.6 billion last year while Tiger Global Management's Chase Coleman made $2.5 billion and Citadel's Ken Griffin landed $1.8 billion.
Pershing Square's Bill Ackman made up the last spot on the top 10, with a $1.4 billion pay cheque after not featuring on the list in 2019.