WEST PALM BEACH, FL (HEDGECO.NET) – Sir George Mathewson, former chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland, is to become chairman of hedge fund Toscafund Holdings. It is his second appointment in a week since retiring on 28 April after 19 years as chairman of RBS. He remains an adviser to RBS and is also a director of the Scottish Investment Trust.

During two decades with RBS, Sir George built a parochial lender that was vulnerable to takeover into a global banking powerhouse valued at more than £66bn. Following the transformational £22bn hostile acquisition of a flabby National Westminster Bank in 2000, RBS is now the eighth-biggest bank in the world.

Toscafund Holdings Limited is a global equity hedge fund and Sir George will be responsible for overseeing and guiding the growth of Toscafund, which manages $4bn (£2.1bn) for City institutions and the very rich. Toscafund runs a “long/ short” equity hedge fund, which invests in stocks that it expects to rise in value and also takes bets on other shares it thinks will fall.

In a statement, Toscafund’s chief executive and owner, the 45-year-old former banking analyst Martin Hughes, said he was “extremely pleased to have someone of Sir George’s calibre on the board”, describing him as “an enormous asset”. Sir George’s pay for the part-time role was not disclosed.

Hedge funds, unlike traditional investment funds, are able to deploy a wider range of investment strategies across a broader range of markets and financial instruments in the search for better returns.

The number of hedge funds has soared from fewer than 500 managing less than $100bn in 1990 to more than 8,000 today with $1,500bn under management globally.

Alex Akesson
Contributing Writer
HedgeCo.Net
Email: Editor@hedgeco.net

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