Former LSE chief Rolet closes in on top hedge fund role

The former boss of the London Stock Exchange (Other OTC: LDNXF - news) (LSE) is closing in on the next phase of his City career with a top role at CQS, the hedge fund manager founded by one of the Conservative Party's most prolific benefactors.

Sky News has learnt that Xavier Rolet is in advanced discussions about joining CQS as its co-chief executive in the coming months, according to a source close to the Frenchman.

If the discussions conclude successfully, the appointment would see Mr Rolet returning to a mainstream City job almost a year after he left the LSE Group in contentious circumstances.

While an agreement between Mr Rolet and CQS is not guaranteed, it is now likely, according to the source.

CQS, which manages more than $17bn (£13.2bn) for investors, is run by Sir Michael Hintze, a hugely successful figure in Britain's alternative investments industry.

Sir Michael, a British-Australian investor and enthusiastic Brexit supporter, founded the hedge fund in 1999 and has since amassed a £1.4bn fortune, according to this year's Sunday Times Rich List.

He is reported to have given well over £1.5m to political causes including the Tories and to the Vote Leave campaign ahead of the 2016 EU referendum.

Sir Michael, who has a wing of the Natural History Museum in London named after him, is also the ‎firm's senior investment officer, while its board of directors includes Lord Myners, the former City minister, and Sir Michael Peat, a former private secretary to HRH The Prince of Wales.

Mr Rolet's discussions with CQS were initially revealed by Sky News in October.

A move to hire Mr Rolet would be an undoubted coup for a firm which has ambitions of becoming a much larger player in the asset management sector.

He was regarded as one of the most ‎effective bosses in corporate Britain during his eight years running the LSE, during which he diversified the business and transformed it into a critical provider of financial markets infrastructure.

His tenure was marred in its final stages, however, by a bitter row which saw its boardroom laid siege to by The Children's Investment Fund (TCI), a hedge fund manager which alleged that the LSE had forced him to step down.

Weeks of ‎fractious exchanges ensued between the LSE and TCI, with Mr Rolet accused of doing little to bring the instability to an end.

He eventually agreed to leave and said he would not return under any circumstances after Mark Carney, the Bank of England governor, signalled that the row should be defused.

Since leaving the LSE, Mr Rolet has joined the boards of PhosAgro, a Russian fertiliser company, and more recently Verseon Corporation (LSE: VSN.L - news) , a California-based pharmaceutical company.

Established as a hedge fund, CQS now has a mainstream "long-only" funds business which is larger by assets than the trading activity which it originally engaged in.

The firm reported profits of $160m on revenues of $311m in the 15-month period from January‎ 2017 to March this year, according to the industry publication Financial News.

CQS declined to comment.