| Related Content The Rich List — Second 25 The Rich List |
The Rich List’s Second Team is the usual mixture of familiar managers who didn’t make the cut for the main ranking because their funds’ performance was too low and a smattering of up-and-comers who may graduate to the top 25 in the future.
One name that immediately jumps out is Leda Braga, who heads Geneva-based Systematica Investments. The reason: She is the first woman to qualify for either the first or second team in the 15-year history of Alpha’s Rich List. In 2015, Braga earned about $60 million, ranking No. 44 alongside two New York–based managers, Scott Ferguson of Sachem Head Capital Management and Mark Kingdon of Kingdon Capital Management.
Braga was formerly president and head of systematic trading at Michael Platt’s now-Jersey-based BlueCrest Capital Management. The Brazilian-born manager, who holds a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Imperial College London, joined BlueCrest in 2001 from Cygnifi Derivatives Services, a J.P. Morgan spin-off.
In 2014, BlueCrest spun off Braga’s operation, which included the BlueTrend Fund, into Systematica. At the time, the group was managing about $9 billion in assets. The firm, which has more than 100 researchers, traders and technologists, managed $10.2 billion as of March 1. Last year the BlueTrend Fund was up 3.4 percent; it rose a further 6.4 percent this year through April 8, according to the HSBC hedge fund database. If the trend-following fund extends this level of performance, Braga may soon graduate to the Rich List’s first team.
While the top 25 list is heavily represented by managers who rely on computers to make their investment decisions, the Second Team seems to be where the human-driven hedge fund firms call home. Very few quants can be found in this bunch.
Braga is not the only first-timer on the Second Team. Scott Shleifer of Tiger Global Management makes his debut at No. 35 with $90 million after taking over responsibility for the New York firm’s hedge funds and long-only funds following the departure of Feroz Dewan.
Rich List fans should keep a close eye on Sachem Head Capital’s Ferguson, who worked for William Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management for nine years before leaving to start his own firm in 2012. Ferguson’s main fund, Sachem Head, was up 14.3 percent last year.
To qualify for the Second Team, a manager had to earn at least $50 million in 2015. The top producer in the group is Nelson Peltz of New York activist firm Trian Fund Management. His $130 million in earnings just missed qualifying for the main list. Two Trian colleagues also qualify for the Second Team: Peter May (No. 31) earned $100 million, and Edward Garden (No. 36) made $85 million.
Three managers dropped to the Second Team from last year’s top 25. Zachary Schreiber (No. 28) of New York–based PointState Capital made a comparatively modest $115 million even though his funds were up 12 percent net. Last year he earned $250 million, allowing him to rank No. 17 overall. King Street founders O. Francis Biondi Jr. and Brian Higgins slipped to the Second Team this year after their flagship fund, King Street Capital Fund, lost money in 2015, dropping 1.67 percent. Its offshore counterpart was down 2.20 percent for the year. However, the pair was able to make the Second Team thanks to their share of King Street’s management fees. In 2014 they each made $190 million, their fourth time qualifying for the main ranking.
Paul Tudor Jones II, founder of Greenwich, Connecticut–based Tudor Investment Corp., made $100 million in 2015 after his macro Tudor BVI Global Fund was up just 1.4 percent. This is the second straight year Jones had to settle for the Second Team, after attaining the top 25 ranking in 12 of its first 13 years.
