Citadel & Citadel Securities released some UK accounts. They suggest some things about deferrals there

It's the time of year when UK companies file their accounts for 2025. If you're Citadel, the hedge fund, or Citadel Securities, the electronic trading firm, you file a lot of accounts for 2025. Not all of which are out yet. 

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So far, Citadel has released accounts for no fewer than four UK entities. These are: Citadel Management (Europe) III Limited (a provider of services in support of investment management, including trading algorithm and software development, to Citadel companies); Citadel Enterprise Technology Services Ltd. (a provider of technology services to Citadel companies); Citadel HF Management (Europe) LLP (a provider of investment management services to Citadel companies) and Citadel Enterprise Europe Services Ltd. (a provider of risk monitoring and admin services to Citadel companies). 

So far, Citadel Securities has released one set of UK accounts. These are for Citadel Securities Europe Services Ltd, which provides algorithm development, technology, trade support and portfolio management to Citadel Securities companies.

Exciting. Except that both companies have yet to release the critical sets of accounts which show what's been going on at their critical UK entities. These are due...soon.

In the meantime, the array of accounts filed so far are not without revelations. Most interestingly, they indicate how it is that people at Citadel and Citadel Securities get paid. 

At Citadel, the accounts say that members of the partnership hold capital in a scheme that invests in three funds in the Cayman Islands. These funds (CEIF International, CEIF Partners International and the Citadel Voluntary Investment Fund) return money to partners either when they leave or when the partnership is dissolved. Last year, $156.8m of these payments (made in the form of shares in related companies) were made to partners at Citadel HF Management (Europe) LLP. It's not clear how many people received the $156.8m, but four partners left during the year according to Companies House. These payments were unrelated to the fund's performance.

At one of Citadel's support arms (Enterprise Europe Services), the accounts say that part of people's bonus is invested in Citadel's employee investment funds and that another part is a notional award that tracks a hypothetical investment in certain funds. This notional award vests over a 40 month period. 

In Citadel's investment services arms, pay can be deferred for up to 40 months too. At the nattily named Citadel Management (Europe) III, for example, $116.9m of compensation was payable at year end 2025, of which $91.1m was due within three months; $20.1m was due in 3 to 12 months; and $5.6m was due after a year. Deferrals take one of three forms: investments in employee funds; notional awards based upon the performance of the hypothetical investment funds; or "participation units" based on the performance of a specific team. 

At Citadel Securities, a separate company in the Citadel universe, things are different again. Here, the accounts released so far for Citadel Securities Europe Services Ltd., indicate that employees don't always get equity but instead get deferred cash bonuses that depend upon how other elements of the company perform. 

Some of these deferred cash bonuses at Citadel Securities track changes in the EBITDA of other Citadel Securities entities. Others are tied to the value of notional equity in other Citadel Securities companies. These awards generally carry no conditions of service beyond the year they relate to, but recipients can forfeit the payments under unspecified conditions. Either way, though, it seems that Citadel Securities isn't necessarily handing out equity: both payments take the form of cash.

Citadel and Citadel Securities have not commented for this article.

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