Residence Geneva, Switzerland Nationality British | Name Michael Platt | |
Born 12 December 1968 (age 55) ( 1968-12-12 ) Preston, England Alma mater London School of Economics Net worth GBP £1.5 billion (STRL, April 2015)$3.5 billion Website | ||
 Occupation Investor, fund manager Similar Jim Ratcliffe, Chris Rokos, Israel Englander | ||
Michael Edward Platt (born 12 December 1968) is an English investor, hedge fund manager, and philanthropist. He is the co-founder and managing director of BlueCrest Capital Management, Europe's third-largest hedge-fund firm. He co-founded the firm in 2000. Bluecrest is a systematic hedge fund based in London.
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Early life and education
Platt was born in Preston, Lancashire, England and studied Civil Engineering at Imperial College London. After a year, he switched to Mathematics and Economics at the London School of Economics.
Early career
Platt started in the City after his grandmother gave him some shares in which to invest and he discovered he had a talent.
He joined JP Morgan in 1991. Platt assumed responsibility for developing JP Morgan's swaps and options trading business in April 1992, and in April 1996, became the head of trading for all swaps products relating to the 11 founding nations of the European single currency. In 2000 Platt co-founded BlueCrest Capital Management LLP, with William Reeves.
BlueCrest Capital
BlueCrest Capital Management (UK) LLP manages over £30bn, and employs 350 people. BlueCrest initially focused on trading interest rates and using computer algorithms to capture trends in bonds and commodities.
In 2013 it expanded into trading equity to compete with Millennium Management LLC and SAC Capital Advisors LLP.
In 2011, George Soros decided to stop managing money for outside clients and turn his hedge-fund firm into a family office. Soros spoke to Platt, asking him to take on more than $1 billion for a 0.5 percent management fee and a 10 percent performance fee. Platt reportedly declined the offer, saying plenty of investors were willing to pay BlueCrest 2-and-20, the industry standard fee structure.
In December 2015, Platt announced that BlueCrest would return $7 billion for outside investors, take no outside money in the future, and become a private partnership.
Personal life
In 2010, he moved from London to Geneva, Switzerland, to save tax and avoid increased regulation. In 2014, it was reported that he had relocated to Jersey, along with his hedge fund, which was moving from nearby Guernsey, for tax purposes.
He is a notable art collector having built a contemporary art collection not by shopping for pictures, but by commissioning them from well-known artists. He has a private showroom in the crypt of a deconsecrated church at One Marylebone, which displays a selection of art by, among others, taxidermist Polly Morgan, the Turner Prize-winning sculptor and installation artist Keith Tyson and Reece Jones