Star fund manager Nick Train has collected a dividend of £15.5m from the fund house he founded for the year to January 2020.
Companies House filings, submitted this week (June 11), showed Lindsell Train Limited — the asset management company Mr Train founded in 2000 with Mike Lindsell — paid a total dividend to shareholders for the financial year ending January 2020 of £43.1m, compared with £29.2m in the previous year.
Mr Train and his business partner Mr Lindsell each own 36 per cent of the business, meaning the pair split a £31m dividend.
Employees of the business and shareholders in the Lindsell Train investment trust own the rest of the company.
In total, directors took home £24.1m. The highest paid staff member was also a director, likely to have been either Mr Lindsell or Mr Train, and received £10.5m in remuneration compared with £8.1m the previous year.
Lindsell Train has 21 staff, including the directors, and total wages and salaries cost the company £35m over the year.
Lindsell Train is one of the most successful fund houses in the industry, and the quality growth style of investing adopted by Mr Train has been in favour for most of the past decade.
Its Fum total has nearly tripled since 2015/16 and its fund range often features amongst investors’ most popular funds.
The filings showed the company’s funds under management had increased by 32 per cent to £21.5bn in the year to January.
This in turn saw its fee revenue jump by a third (32 per cent) to £112m, 96 per cent of which came from recurring charges.
The company’s after tax profit for the year was £59.6m, compared with £45m in 2019.
However, recent updates showed its assets had fallen to £18.2bn in April as the coronavirus crisis saw some £3.3bn wiped from its funds.
An update on the Lindsell Train investment trust published on April 15 showed Lindsell Train had written down the value of its own funds business in light of the pandemic and due to the drop in Fum.
The company recently announced it is to expand its fund range for the first time in nine years, launching a North American Equity fund to join its UK, Japan and global strategies.
It looked to be part of Lindsell Train’s succession planning, as the company said it would allow managers within the firm other than the founders to manage a portfolio with “complete autonomy”.
The accounts showed James Bullock, who will manage the new fund, owns 185 shares in Lindsell Train.
imogen.tew@ft.com
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