A financier's wife has been awarded £337 million in what could be Britain’s biggest ever divorce settlement – but her legal team have hinted that she may appeal for more.

Sir Chris Hohn has been told to hand over the sum following the collapse of his 15-year marriage to Jamie Cooper-Hohn.

The pair – who have homes in London, the US and West Indies – had fought over assets totalling more than £700 million at the High Court.

Payout: Jamie Cooper-Hohn (left) , the American wife of financier Sir Chris Hohn (right) has been awarded £337 million by a High Court judge following their divorce battle

The settlement was revealed in a hearing yesterday – during which Mrs Cooper-Hohn’s lawyers asked the judge how long they have to request an appeal.

Sources close to Mrs Cooper-Hohn indicated that she wants to examine the precise percentage she has been awarded.

Sir Chris’s representatives told the court they were anxious to ‘move on with things [but the] wife is not’.

The long-running case had bordered on farce at times, with Sir Chris, 47, accusing Mrs Cooper-Hohn of seeking maintenance payments towards a dog that never existed.

What Jamie Cooper-Hohn could afford to buy with her £337 million divorce settlement

Sir Chris, who was born in Addlestone, Surrey, met his American wife, 49, when the pair studied at Harvard Business School.

She told an earlier hearing that she initially spurned his advances, but the pair later bonded over the film Malcolm X.

They married in Washington DC in 1995 and had four children – triplets, now aged 12, and an older child of 15.

They split up in December 2012, with Mrs Cooper-Hohn divorcing Sir Chris in April 2013 – but the decree nisi has never been made absolute.

Cahrity work: During the trial, Mrs Cooper-Hohn told the judge that she worked long hours on behalf of their charitable foundation and travelled

The court heard earlier this year that the couple lived ‘modest’ lives, with Sir Chris’s lifestyle described as more ‘Swatch’ watch than ‘jet-set’.

Mrs Cooper-Hohn said she should get half of the couple’s fortune because the wealth was created as a result of their ‘partnership’. Sir Chris said she should receive a quarter.

Mrs Cooper-Hohn claimed their joint assets were around £849 million – and added that her ex-husband was worth at least £872 million from personal assets and his hedge fund, for a combined total of £1.72billion.

However, Sir Chris, who was knighted in the Queen’s birthday honours this year, claimed he is worth a mere £67 million.

Investor: During the trial, Sir Chris had described himself as one of the 'top ten' career investors

One of the country’s biggest philanthropists, Sir Chris has given more than £1 billion to charity through the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, which is linked to his hedge fund.

Mrs Cooper-Hohn told the court she had been the chairman of the venture, and was the inspiration behind her husband’s donations.

She said: ‘When Chris and I first met, I asked him what he wanted to do. He said “I don’t mind as long as I make a lot of money”.’

Sir Chris – a so-called ‘non-dom’ who is legally based outside of the UK – countered that he had wanted to help others from an early age.

He added: ‘I learned very early on that you can’t take money with you and that it doesn’t bring happiness. The basis for my claim [to retain 75 per cent of the disputed fortune] is that I have created all the wealth through expertise, effort and sweat and blood.’

Mrs Justice Roberts has yet to deliver a detailed ruling on the dispute, but a draft version has been given to Sir Chris and Mrs Cooper-Hohn and their legal teams.

The £337 million award is thought to be the biggest of its kind ever made by a judge in England.

The amount spent on litigation is believed to have run into the millions, too – but it remains unclear who will foot the bill.

A judge involved in one of the couple’s earlier hearings had wondered aloud about the fees.

‘God knows the cost of being here,’ Mr Justice Holman had said. ‘I know these people are immensely wealthy ... the costs just roll off the back of the duck like a drop.’

Alison Hawes, a family law specialist at the firm Irwin Mitchell, said yesterday’s settlement was ‘certainly one of the highest’.

However, bigger payouts may have been awarded in private hearings.

The wife of late Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky reportedly accepted a deal between £165million and £220million three years ago.