The activist hedge fund firm TCI - The Children's Investment fund - which attacked the Dutch bank ABN AMRO in 2007 and led to the sale of that firm, said its profits available to be shared out have risen by 73 per cent to £555.9 million ($912 million).

The reporting period is for the year to the end of August 2008, a period that partly coincides with hedge funds’ worst performance, on average, on record. Last year, funds lost almost 19 per cent, although that is less severe than the 40 per cent drop in the MSCI World Index of developed countries’ stocks.

The TCI business gives money to charities: the firm, run by Chris Hohn, paid £484.3 million to its charity CIFF, up from £271.4 million a year before.