RAB boss exits after hedgie goes private
THE CHIEF executive of RAB Capital has left the hedge fund manager, it emerged yesterday, marking the latest chapter in a long saga of tumbling assets and defecting clients.
Former Credit Suisse executive Charles Kirwan-Taylor left RAB at the end of last year, having joined in September 2010.
Michael Alen-Buckley, executive chairman of RAB, told City A.M. the job was “no longer big enough” for Kirwan-Taylor following the fund’s departure from the stock exchange, but praised his impact while he was in the post.
RAB was once the darling of the industry and counted the Mittal family among its investors. It hit problems in the credit crisis, however, when its Special Situations fund invested heavily in illiquid securities and bought into Northern Rock before the lender collapsed.
RAB’s assets under management stood at $7bn at the end of 2007 but today they are around $350m. The Special Situations fund is up nine per cent this month and its energy fund up 12 per cent, Alen-Buckley added.
“We had significant downsizing and we have stabilised and we are quite happy to keep a relatively low profile,” he said.