Morning Coffee: Repentant private equity firm's new approach to keeping juniors happy. Intense life of 32-year old fintech man

Last week a meme was circulating concerning the extremely thin cuts of carried interest that are likely to come your way as a junior in a private equity fund. That is, if you get any carried interest at all. 

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Now, a repentant London private equity fund that formerly had a strategy of inflating the price of a thyroid drug sold to the NHS by 6,000% over a 10-year period, is splashing carried interest around to everyone at the fund. Including juniors. Including support staff. 

The fund is Cinven. Speaking to the Financial Times Cinven's newly wholesome co-heads declared that they have opened up the pool of Cinven carried interest so that every Cinven employee can wet themselves within it. They are also holding Monday morning investment team meetings, which juniors attend, and at which the damp old dogs are encouraged to explain every aspect of new investments, old investments, and exit processes. “It is hugely appreciated because it helps, especially the more junior people, to get up on the learning curve very quickly,” says one of Cinven's new bosses, whose name is Jorge Quemada.

Quemada and his colleague were appointed in December after Cinven's previous chief executive resigned. He did so after Cinven's earlier methods of earning carried interest were scrutinised. In 2015, Cinven sold a pharmaceutical group for £2.3bn in what the fund described at the time as “one of the most successful deals we’ve ever done.” However, Cinven's successful strategy was subsequently found to have involved ratcheting up the prices of niche pharmaceutical products overlooked by the regulator. Last year, it was fined £52m.

Times are different now. There is Jorge and there is co-chief executive Bruno Schick. There is a new legal and compliance team of 17 people. The new focus is on collaborating, doing deals, returning cash to investors. 

Cinven has been busy hiring juniors and interns from big US banks and top universities. It also has a new inhouse chef with experience of catering for "fine dining." Maybe it will pay more than a sliver of carried interest to employees at the bottom of the pile? Maybe not. 

Separately, if you want to work 80 hour weeks for a thrusting man who made millions (maybe hundreds of them) in his late 20s, Alan Chang is hiring. 

The Times says that Chang, who made his money at Revolut, wants to hire 120 people for his new energy company "Fuse" before the year is out. They won't have to work in the office. They will be able to work whenever they want. They won't even need a cover letter when they apply. 

Sounds great, except that Chang is the sort of person who - in the words of Kirk McKeown, the former head of research at hedge fund Point72, approaches every day with "rigour." He's single. He doesn't drink. He doesn't watch films. He doesn't read books. He himself is in the office 80-90 hours a week. 

Some of Chang's young employees complained to the Observer in January that they were being expected to work 100 hour weeks and their lives were miserable. “A lot of people, a lot of companies, they don’t speak the uncomfortable truth,” Chang told the Times. “We have a truth-seeking culture.” Some may enjoy this.

Meanwhile...

EY is investing $100m in rewards for employees who show skills like adaptability, innovation and judgment, as well as experimentation with AI. Individuals can earn spot awards up to $500; teams can earn $25k. (WSJ) 

Alex Gerko made a record £895m from the profits of XTX Markets last year. £1.7bn was shared between Gerko and his quantitative traders and top tech developers. The 23 other people took home £833m between them, an average of £36.2m each. (Financial Times)  

The Trump administration just changed internship laws for international students. Now they may only complete internships if employers have a partnership with their school. (WSJ) 

Citadel and Marshall Wace are still battling over the recruitment of Adam Shatz who left Citadel to become Marshall Wace's head of credit. Now Citadel wants Marshall Wace to reveal the communications of Anthony Clake and Alpha Plus fund co-PM Alan Hofmeyr, whom it says were involved in hiring Shatz. (Business Insider)  

Citadel says Marshall Wace was supposed to hand over documents relating to Shatz' recruitment three months ago, but has not done so. (Bloomberg) 

Marshall Wace is opening a Japan office. (Bloomberg) 

Yao Hua Ooi helped build a $6.3 billion systematic trading strategy at AQR. Now he's gone to Capula for something similar. (Bloomberg) 

Asian equities are the place to be. BCG Expand estimates Asia Pacific's share of global equities revenues will increase from 21% in 2024 to 25% this year, roughly in line with EMEA. (IFR) 

Gavin Yates, head of Arini Capital's US business, has left. So has Ben Elliott in the US team. Arini lost 8% in July. It's not clear why Yates or Elliott left. (Bloomberg) 

Hedge funds in Brazil are giving up and ceding staff and assets to banks. “We are going through a cyclical downturn for hedge funds, with extremely high interest rates and very strong competition from products that enjoy tax advantages.” (Bloomberg)  

A curious business model. Guggenheim controlled four insurance companies in all. Between them, they invested $5.1 billion in debt issued by companies linked to Guggenheim and loaned almost $1 billion to Guggenheim business associates, while also reinsuring each other's risk. (Net Interest)  

JPMorgan hired Robin Rousseau from Citi as vice chair. (Financial News) 

Anthropic is preparing for an enormous IPO after the September 7th Labor Day holiday. Other companies thinking of IPOs are having to work around this and the November mid-terms. Some are deciding it's too much bother. (Bloomberg) 

If Reform are elected in the UK, they will have a sovereign wealth fund staffed with people on competitive salaries. (Bloomberg) 

Working in cybersecurity has become a nightmare in the age of AI. Some in the industry are tinkering with old ham radios and studying the tenets of stoicism to relax. (Bloomberg)

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