Shareholders may be forced to accept Brevan Howard's fee hike demands - Stifel

Upgrades BH Macro and BH Global recommendations

BH Macro and BH Global shareholders may have to accept demands from hedge fund Brevan Howard of a hike in the fees paid to the trusts’ investment manager, Stifel has predicted after upgrading its recommendations on the trusts after their "premium bubbles" popped.

Brevan Howard last Friday (22 January) served an ultimatum to the board of the two London-listed investment companies it runs, demanding the 2% management fee and 20% performance fee it had charged pre-2017 be reinstated, and proposing a levy on share repurchases. The fees shareholders paid for both funds had been slashed in 2016, after Brevan Howard saw its AUM plunge from a peak $40bn to around $6.5bn on poor performance. Investors pay a fixed fee of 1% based on the NAV of the trust after a 2017 tender offer. This, broker Numis predicted, works out to a fee of 0.65% today. IPO marke...