Citadel’s Sticky Employee Pay Weighed on $5.3 Billion Gains

Employee pay at Ken Griffin’s Citadel held fast last year despite lower returns, underscoring the burdensome costs that come with running giant multistrategy hedge funds amid a heated fight for talent.

Operating costs charged to Citadel’s three flagship multistrategy funds, which hold most of its $66 billion in assets, rose 4% to nearly $4.5 billion last year, according to bond offering documents obtained by Bloomberg.