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| 11. Christopher Hohn / $365 million | ||
| Title: Founder, managing partner, and portfolio managerFirm: TCI Fund Management (London)Age: 502016 Rank: No. 112016 Earnings: $365 million2015 Rank: No. 10 (tie)2015 Earnings: $300 millionYears on list: 3 | Source of BS in accounting and business economics, University of Southampton, 1988 | |
Not only was Christopher Hohn’s TCI Fund Management one of the top-performing activist firms last year, it trounced most stock market indexes, with its flagship fund, The Children’s Investment Master Fund, notching a 13.5 percent gain. Hohn’s second consecutive double-digit annual gain allowed the Perry Capital alumnus to qualify for the Rich List for the third straight year.
Virtually all of TCI’s gains came in the second half of the year; the fund was up just a little more than 1 percent in the first six months. TCI got a huge boost from its position in cable and broadband giant Charter Communications, which gained 42 percent last year. Aurizon Holdings, an Australian rail freight company, rose 22 percent; Spanish airport owner and operator Aena climbed 26 percent after surging about 80 percent in 2015. TCI now manages about $20 billion, including $12.8 billion in its hedge fund strategy and $3 billion in its real estate business.
Hohn launched TCI in 2002 with a plan to give a sizable amount of the profits to the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, a philanthropic organization geared toward helping children, headed by his then-wife, Jamie Cooper-Hohn. He has since stopped making payments, on the grounds that the $4.4 billion charity is large enough. But Hohn hasn’t stopped his charitable giving. Earlier this year he donated $10 million to She Decides, an organization launched by a Dutch government minister in response to an executive order by President Trump barring aid to international organizations that provide access to or information about abortion. The nongovernmental organization seeks to raise money and generate political support “to ensure full access to sexual health and family planning worldwide.” In a press release announcing the donation, Hohn said: “Contraceptives are highly effective and save lives. It’s one of the best investments I know.” Last year he was one of four current or retired hedge fund managers who invested in Bill Gates’s new, $1 billion fund, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, which plans to invest in clean energy and other new technologies.
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