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Sir Chris Hohn’s hedge fund TCI surged 27 per cent last year as it profited from big bets on the aerospace sector, helping to solidify the British billionaire’s place as one of the world’s best-performing hedge fund managers.
TCI, which managed just under $80bn at the start of this year, made billions of dollars from bets on US advanced jet engine manufacturer GE Aerospace, French plane manufacturer Airbus and defence company and engine manufacturer Safran, according to one person familiar with the gains. All the companies outperformed. The return figure is calculated net of investor fees.
The news comes as accounts to March last year filed by TCI Fund Management Limited show that it paid an $81.6mn dividend to another company in the wider group, also controlled by the billionaire financier. Hohn typically invests much of these dividends back into the fund, according to a person familiar with the situation.
Hohn is known for his fearsome activist campaigns against companies including Airbus, Alphabet and the London Stock Exchange Group, but also for buying and holding companies that he sees as having powerful competitive advantages against rivals for several years.
TCI held a $14bn stake in GE Aerospace by the third quarter of last year, according to US regulatory filings, with the stock surging 90 per cent during the year. Safran increased by 45 per cent last year while Airbus was up more than 30 per cent.
TCI also held multibillion-dollar stakes in Microsoft, Moody’s and Visa, and these stocks were positive but performed less well.
The S&P 500 climbed 16 per cent last year while the Stoxx Europe 600, the region’s benchmark index, gained almost 17 per cent.
The accounts also showed that the group had made a $797mn charitable donation, confirming Hohn as one of the UK’s biggest donors. Hohn is the co-founder and chair of The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, a charity that makes large donations to causes, including children’s health, climate change and sexual and reproductive rights.
Last year, the foundation stopped giving grants to US-based non-governmental organisations, saying it no longer understood the “US policy environment” governing donations. Liberal non-profits in America have been put under pressure by US President Donald Trump’s administration, with the president saying the non-governmental sector was full of “thugs and sleazebags”.
TCI declined to comment.
