Citadel's pay for Nabeel Bhanji in London? A lot more than £5m
Nabeel Bhanji, the event-driven portfolio manager whose defection from Elliott Management to Citadel, was reported yesterday, was something of a star at his former employer. Bhanji joined Elliott in 2011, but was promoted to director there in June 2023. He was reportedly building out Elliott's business in Europe and Japan and help build Elliott's $1bn stake in Anglo American, whose shares jumped 6% when it received an offer from BHP. So, what made Bhanji suddenly leave for Citadel?
Get Morning Coffee ☕ in your inbox. Sign up here.
Citadel isn't commenting, but the Financial Times suggests Bhanji's move might be related to a bigger job - he will reportedly have a "global leadership" position alongside an investment role at Citadel. The London market is also, however, alive with speculation about how much Bhanji is being paid by his new employer.
We would suggest, £5m ($6.4m), at the very least. Last year, Elliott paid five directors in London a total of £50m. However, one individual director at Elliott received £29m there, and this is more likely to have been Jonathan Pollock Elliott's London-based co-chief executive Officer and co-chief investment officer, than Bhanji. The remaining four directors therefore received £5m each on average, and 39 year-old Bhanji is likely to have required a substantial premium to move. Some are suggesting £10m+. Some are suggesting $20m.
The supposition is that he'll be building a new event driven team at Citadel. Helpfully, there are a few merger arb portfolio managers on the market - Millennium let go of Laurent Pujade and Ed Cooper earlier this month. Citadel already has an event driven team in London run by Pedro Maqueda, who joined from Eton Park in 2017.
Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: +44 7537 182250 (SMS, Whatsapp or voicemail). Telegram: @SarahButcher. Click here to fill in our anonymous form, or email editortips@efinancialcareers.com. Signal also available.
Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: all our comments are moderated by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. Eventually it will – unless it’s offensive or libellous (in which case it won’t.
