Hedge Fund News: Alan Howard, Boaz Weinstein, David E. Shaw

Hedge Fund Managers Share Rich List Crown After Tricky Year for Brevan (The Wall Street Journal)
Things are changing atop the ranks of the richest hedge fund mangers. Alan Howard, the founder of Brevan Howard Asset Management LLP, now has to share his crown at the top of the rankings of hedge fund managers in the 2015 Sunday Times Rich List for Britain after a tricky year for his firm. The secretive billionaire saw his wealth drop £100 million ($150.5 million) to £1.5 billion, according to the list, after a year in which his flagship macro hedge fund posted its first-ever calendar year loss and the firm’s commodities fund was shut down.

Saba Rebounds in April After Posting Worst Month Ever in March (Bloomberg)
Boaz Weinstein’s credit hedge fund rebounded 7.3 percent in April after posting its worst month ever in March, according to two people briefed on the returns. The gains, helped by a surge in Hong Kong equity volatility, reversed a loss of 6.3 percent in March for Weinstein’s Saba Capital Partners fund, according to one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. The fund, which was down 7.9 percent in the first three months of the year, has since pared its 2015 loss to 1 percent.

Family Office of Google’s Eric Schmidt Buys Stake in Hedge Fund D.E. Shaw (The New York Times)
The family office for the Google chairman Eric E. Schmidt has purchased a large stake in the $36 billion hedge fund, D. E. Shaw. The 20 percent stake is one of the last vestiges of the bankrupt Lehman Brothers, a prime asset that the estate had been shopping around for more than a year. Hillspire, the family office that serves as an investment vehicle for Mr. Schmidt, bought the stake for an undisclosed price. “I’ve always regarded Eric as a kindred spirit — someone who shares our belief in the power of groundbreaking innovation, analytical rigor, and extraordinarily gifted employees,” David E. Shaw, the founder of D. E. Shaw, said in a statement.

Hedge Fund Billionaires Double as Platt Catches Up to Howard (Bloomberg)
Seven U.K. hedge fund managers are now worth more than 1 billion pounds ($1.5 billion), up from four executives last year, an annual wealth ranking compiled by the Sunday Times showed. Alan Howard and Michael Platt, co-founders of Brevan Howard Asset Management and BlueCrest Capital Management respectively, led the hedge fund section of the Sunday Times Rich List 2015 with fortunes of 1.5 billion pounds each. Platt, whose wealth was unchanged from last year, caught up with Howard, whose fortune shrank 100 million pounds after topping the 2014 list.