Like father, like son. This truism apparently applies to hedge fund managers just as much as other professions. According to a September 21st article in the Wall Street Journal, a number of the sons of wealthy hedge fund moguls, including those of well-known fund managers Howard Marks and Ken Moelis, have recently launched or plan to launch hedge funds in the near future.
Not surprisingly, the WSJ article by Rob Coperland also notes most of these family scions are receiving a good-sized chunk of the family fortune to help them compete in the cutthroat hedge fund industry.
Andrew Marks gets his own hedge fund
Apparently, Andrew Marks, the 28-year-old son of hedge fund billionaire Howard Marks, is telling potential investors he has lined up $200 million in funding from his father as well as additional “friends and family” money for his new fund. The fund is to be named “Anicca” after the Buddhist tenet of impermanence, and will be launched within the next nine months. Howard Marks founded Oaktree Capital Group LLC almost 20 years ago, and the firm currently has more than $80 billion under management. The younger Marks has also said the fund will be focused on value investing.
Jordan Moelis also starting his own fund
The WSJ article also notes that Marks’s former classmate at the University of Pennsylvania, Jordan Moelis, the son of Ken Moelis, is starting a fund that will launch as soon as the first quarter of 2015. Just a few months ago, Ken Moelis saw his New York investment bank through an IPO deal that valued his stake at $400 million. He will invest in his son’s fund but won’t have an ownership stake, according to knowledgeable sources.
Other hedge fund scions starting funds
Of interest, a number of other young traders have founded hedge funds with family money relatively in the last year or so. These hedge fund young guns include Schuster Tanger, with family wealth based in outlet malls, and Till Bechtolsheimer, who received around around $200 million in capital with a 10-year commitment from his grandfather Karl-Heinz Kipp, the German department store billionaire. Bechtolsheimer decided to name his firm Arosa Capital Management LP after his family’s adopted hometown in the Switzerland.
