by Hedge Fund Insight staff
Michael Platt, the co-founder of BlueCrest Capital Management, is the richest hedge fund manager in Britain with a net worth of £3 billion ($4.1 billion), according to the Sunday Times.
The Sunday Times published its 2018 “Rich List” yesterday (May 13), ranking the 1,000 wealthiest people in the UK. It compiles the index by calculating net worth based on identifiable wealth, including land, property, other assets such as art and racehorses, or shares in publicly quoted companies. The calculations do not include bank accounts, which the paper can’t access. The list includes, where relevant, spouses who actively participate in their partner’s business or who pool their assets.
The data show that over the last year, Platt’s wealth increased by £600 million ($813 million). Platt’s success is in large part due to the decision by BlueCrest in 2015 to return the approximately £5.2 billion of outside investors’ money it had been managing. From then on, BlueCrest’s traders have been managing the roughly £750 million in assets Platt and his partners had made by running the fund for previous decade and a half, as well as borrowed money.
That, according to Bloomberg, freed BlueCrest up to not worry so much about proving a monthly return, and, therefore, take on more risk. It paid off. In 2016, the hedge fund generated a return of 50% on its capital, and in 2017 improved further, to a return of 54%. And of course, since much of the capital used during by BlueCrest in the past few years was Platt’s own, that’s led to a significant increase in the hedge fund manager’s personal wealth.
| Ranking | Name | Hedge fund | 2018 wealth | Wealth increase/decrease from 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Platt | BlueCrest Capital | £3 billion | Up £600 million |
| 2 | Michael Hintze | CQS | £1.38 billion | Up £100 million |
| 3 | Nick Roditi | N. Roditi & Co. | £1.19 billion | Up £181 million |
| 4 | Tom Sandell | Sandell Asset Management | £1.07 billion | New entry |
| 5 | Alan Howard | Brevan Howard | £1.01 billion | Down £30 million |
| 6(tied) | David Harding | Winton Capital | £1 billion | Down £300 million |
| 6 (tied) | Chris Hohn | TCI Fund Holdings | £1 billion | Up £180 million |
| 8 | Chris Rokos | Brevan Howard/Rokos Capital Management | £775 million | Up £75 million |
| 9 | Crispin Odey and Nichola Pease | Odey Asset Management | £750 million | Down £25 million |
| 10 | John Armitage | Egerton Capital | £540 million | No change |
| 11 (tied) | Paul Marshall | Marshall Wace | £520 million | Up £15 million |
| 11 (tied) | Ian Wace | Marshall Wace | £520 million | Up £15 million |
| 13 (tied) | Yan Huo | Capula Investment Management | £475 million | Up £75 million |
| 13 (tied) | Andrew Law | Caxton Associates | £475 million | No change |
| 15 | William Bollinger | Egerton Capital | £450 million | No change |
| 16 | Martin Hughes | Toscafund Asset Management | £420 million | Up £30 million |
| 17 | Jeremy Hosking | Marathon Asset Management | £355 million | Up £25 million |
| 18 | Jonathan Hiscock | GSA Capital | £325 million | Up £5 million |
| 19 | John Beckwith | Pacific Asset Management | £310 million | Up £8 million |
| 20 (tied) | Paul Ruddock | Lansdowne Partners | £300 million | No change |
| 20 (tied) | Nicola Tangen | AKO Capital | £300 million | Up £12 million |
| 20 (tied) | Ross Turner | Pelham Capital | £300 million | Up £77 million |
Please note that research by HFI has fed into several different entries in the UK hedge fund rich list given above. As constructed, the table above lists men who have made most of their wealth from hedge fund strategies.
related articles:
London-based Hedge Fund Rich List 2017 (May 2017)
Hedge Fund Managers in 2016 Sunday Times Rich List (May 2016)
Odey Is Big Riser In Hedge Fund Rich List (May 2015)