Platt runs BlueCrest Capital Management, a private investment company that focuses on rates, emerging markets and equity trades. The Jersey-based firm recorded returns of 25% in 2018, 50% in 2019, 95% in 2020 and 30% in 2021. It returned all client money in 2016 to focus on managing the wealth of Platt, his partners and employees.
Michael Platt's net worth of $12.5B can buy ...
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Platt owns at least 50% of BlueCrest Capital Management, according to a Bloomberg analysis of regulatory filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
BlueCrest no longer manages external money so no value is attributed to the firm itself. The company is focusing on managing the wealth of Platt, his partners and Bluecrest employees, according to a December 2015 Bloomberg News report. BlueCrest gained almost 50% in 2016 - the first year of trading just Platt and his partners’ money, according to a March 13, 2020 report by Bloomberg News. The fund was up about 54% in 2017, 25% in 2018, 50% in 2019, 95% in 2020, and 30% in 2021, according to Bloomberg.
The billionaire's cash balance is based on his calculated 50% share of Bluecrest assets under management that were $2.5 billion at the end of 2015, according to a December 2015 report by Bloomberg News. This is valued based on an analysis of their performance, insider transactions, taxes and charitable contributions. The valuation was updated on Jan. 17, 2022, for Bluecrest's 2021 performance, leading to a rise of about $2 billion.
Ed Orlebar, a spokesman for BlueCrest, declined to comment on Platt's net worth.
Michael Edward Platt was born on March 18, 1968 in Preston, England, the son of a university professor, according to a 2010 Bloomberg Markets magazine article. He began trading stocks while at school before studying at the London School of Economics. He graduated and joined JPMorgan in New York in 1991, and worked on the bank’s derivatives desk, trading interest-rate swaps. Platt said his group was making at least $500 million a year for JPMorgan by the mid-1990s, according to the Bloomberg Markets profile.
He rose to become a managing director of proprietary trading and left to found BlueCrest with fellow trader William Reeves, which they started in London in November 2000. The company initially focused on interest rate bets and its BlueTrend algorithm fund was established in 2004.
At the end of 2012, BlueCrest was managing more than $34 billion in total, which had fallen to $27 billion by September 2014, amid underperformance, clients pulling money, and a February 2014 report from advisor Albourne Partners that highlighted the existence of an internal fund run for select employees. The company announced on Sept. 26, 2014, that Leda Braga, who runs BlueTrend, would be leaving Bluecrest to set up her own computer-driven fund. In December 2015, Bluecrest said it would return all client money to focus on managing the wealth of Platt, Bluecrest partners and employees.
A resident of Geneva, Platt spent five million pounds ($10 million) establishing a London art gallery in 2007.