Terry Smith, the UK’s most popular money manager, saw his first pay drop since 2016, as his funds saw a slide in both assets and profits.
Smith, who’s lived in Mauritius for the past decade and manages the UK’s largest retail equity fund, got £31.1 million ($38.2 million) in the 12 months through March, down from £36.4 million a year earlier, according to a statement Tuesday. Profit at Fundsmith LLP declined 14% to £50 million and assets under management fell 8% to £36.4 billion as clients pulled money.
Fundsmith is among asset managers hit by a slump in profits as higher interest rates and geopolitical tensions roil the industry. In 2022, the firm’s flagship Fundsmith Equity fund that now manages £23 billion had its first slowdown in more than a decade after returning more than 500% since its inception in 2010. In the latest financial year through March, it was up only 3%, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
But the firm’s latest earnings statements don’t provide a full picture of its operations.
Earlier this year Bloomberg News reported that Smith became a billionaire and showed how he has moved more of his interests away from Britain through legal entities in tax havens that lead to a trust in Seychelles, an island-nation in the Indian Ocean. In 2022, he also transferred most of his stake in his asset manager to this trust.
Since 2015, Smith has shipped a greater proportion of his wealth to Mauritius, making payments of hundreds of millions of pounds to a company based on the island. In the year through March, the Mauritius company Fundsmith Investment Services Ltd. charged the UK business £185.7 million.
Smith started his firm after a career in the City of London that included a stint at leading broker Tullett Prebon. The asset manager he now runs is a partnership, meaning that members share the profits.
Apart from the Fundsmith Equity fund, Smith also manages some smaller funds in the UK and a vehicle for private investors in Mauritius. Turnover at the firm dropped to £278.5 million from £358.1 million.
(Updates with background in seventh paragraph.)
