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| 10. (tie) Christopher Hohn / $300 million | ||
| Title: Founder, managing partner and portfolio managerFirm: TCI Fund Management (London)Age: 492015 Rank: No. 10 (tie)2015 Earnings: $300 million2014 Rank: No. 22 (tie)2014 Earnings: $180 millionYears on list: 2 | Source of BS in accounting and business economics, University of Southampton, 1988 | |
Christopher Hohn is clearly in the zone. London-based TCI Fund Management was one of the top-performing hedge fund firms last year, posting a 14.4 percent gain in its main fund — extending its streak of positive annual returns to seven following a disastrous 2008. As a result, Hohn qualifies for the Rich List for the second straight year. TCI managed about $11 billion at year-end, up from $8.8 billion at the start of 2015. Like most activist investors, TCI runs a very concentrated portfolio. Its gains were driven by ten to 12 stocks, including Spanish airport owner and operator AENA, which jumped about 80 percent in 2015. (Last year Hohn received a seat on the company’s board of directors.) TCI generated a 53 percent return from European aircraft maker Airbus Group and a 25 percent gain from U.S. cable giant Time Warner Cable. When Hohn launched TCI in 2002, he planned to give a sizable amount of the profits to the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, a philanthropic organization headed by his then-wife, Jamie Cooper-Hohn. He subsequently reduced the payments and then ceased making them altogether, figuring the now $4.4 billion charity was large enough. In June 2014, Hohn was appointed knight commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George on honor Queen Elizabeth’s birthday, “for services to U.K. philanthropy and international development.” Hohn has also made sizable contributions to the San Francisco–based Tides Foundation, which makes grants to support social change. The 49-year-old got his start at Richard Perry’s New York–based Perry Capital, eventually moving to London to run a European fund.
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