Forbes Asia - May 2018

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Hedgemony

EVEN THE KINGS of Wall Street suf er from an income disparity. h e

top i ve hedge funders earned nearly half of the $16.8 billion we tallied

for our annual list of the 25 highest-earning hedgies. Two members of the

roll, Philippe Laf ont and John Armitage, are newly minted billionaires

thanks to their mega-paydays. Both are dyed-in-the-wool stock pickers, a

seemingly rare breed these days.

PHILIPPE LAFFONT

La ont has spent 19 years

focusing solely on tech. His

Coatue Management now

oversees $16 billion, which goes

into stocks and vehicles that

invest in private companies and

startups. Coatue’s main fund

returned 24% net of fees in 2017.

The Belgium-born La ont cut

his teeth analyzing European

telecom companies for hedge

fund legend Julian Robertson.

EARNINGS^1

($MIL) ORGANIZATION

1 MICHAEL PLATT $2,000 BlueCrest Capital Management

2 JAMES SIMONS 1,800 Renaissance Technologies

3 DAVID TEPPER 1,500 Appaloosa Management

4 KEN GRIFFIN 1,400 Citadel

5 RAY DALIO 900 Bridgewater Associates

5 ISRAEL ENGLANDER 900 Millennium Management

7 DANIEL LOEB 750 Third Point

8 STEVE COHEN 700 Point72 Asset Management

9 ANDREAS HALVORSEN 600 Viking Global Investors

9 CHRISTOPHER HOHN 600 The Children’s Investment Fund

11 JOSEPH EDELMAN 500 Perceptive Advisors

11 PHILIPPE LAFFONT 500 Coatue Management

11 DAVID SHAW 500 D. E. Shaw & Co.

11 PAUL SINGER 500 Elliott Management

15 STEPHEN MANDEL JR. 450 Lone Pine Capital

16 JOHN OVERDECK 400 Two Sigma Investments

16 DAVID SIEGEL 400 Two Sigma Investments

18 LARRY ROBBINS 380 Glenview Capital Management

19 CHASE COLEMAN III 350 Tiger Global Management

20 JAMES DINAN 300 York Capital Management

20 GABRIEL PLOTKIN 300 Melvin Capital Management

20 GEORGE SOROS 300 Soros Fund Management

23 JOHN ARMITAGE 270 Egerton Capital

24 LEON G. COOPERMAN 250 Omega Advisors

25 MICHAEL HINTZE 200 CQS

MICHAEL PLATT

After returning

money to outside

investors two years

ago, Platt has dialed

up the leverage and

taken on more risk.

His new formula is

working: In 2017 his

BlueCrest Capital

generated a return

of 54% on its assets,

net of all costs.

DANIEL LOEB

Known for sending

brash letters to

corporate boards, Loeb,

whose fl agship hedge

fund returned 18.2%,

has quietly surpassed

his peers with solid

performances in

recent years.

CHRISTOPHER HOHN

One of the hottest

hedge fund

managers at the

moment. Last year

the activist investor’s

main $18.5 billion

fund returned 27%

net of fees.

(^1) 2017 earnings. Pretax fi gures include the personal gain of each manager’s interest in his funds
plus fee income after accounting for fi rm expenses and profi t-sharing arrangements.
FORBES ASIA
WALL STREET RICHEST
BY NATHAN VARDI
MAY 2018 FORBES ASIA | 43