John Duffield to launch new asset management venture

John Duffield to launch new asset management venture

Serial fund management entrepreneur John Duffield is planning a comeback with a new asset management business, according to reports.

The multimillionaire, whose New Star fund management group was the subject of a rescue takeover by Henderson earlier this year, has hired office space in Knightsbridge, near his London home, and registered the name Hyde Park Asset Management, according to the Interactive Investor website.

The site adds that John Jay, a former Sunday Times City editor who worked for Duffield at New Star, is to be installed as chief executive of the new operation.

Duffield's new venture represents a third start-up in Duffield's fund management career. Prior to New Star he set up Jupiter, but sold it to Commerzbank, pocketing a rumoured £200m. He left shortly afterwards following a public row with the German bank.

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New Star ran into trouble after investors made big withdrawals. The group had run up debts of £240m in order to pay £383m to shareholders – mainly Duffield and his staff – and its shares plummeted. Henderson paid just 2p for shares that had been changing hands for 240p a year earlier.

According to Interactive Investor, Hyde Park Asset Management will initially focus on managing Duffield's own family fortune, which is estimated at more than £300m. He could then develop it into a so-called "family office", specialising in managing the portfolios of wealthy family clients.

Sixty-nine-year-old Duffield is known for his trademark woolly v-necks and drives a Ford Mondeo. He prefers to work a four-day week and starts his working day at around 11am, spending other time on his farms in Newbury and Oxford. However, he has a reputation as a hard taskmaster – albeit one who rewards his top-performing staff very well.

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