Ziff Alumni

Four of the managers who started billion-dollar firms since the beginning of last year came out of the Ziff Brothers family office, which managed the wealth of Dirk, Robert and Daniel––scions of William Ziff’s magazine-publishing empire. The brothers began reorganizing how they manage their fortune after several key managers left.

David Fear, who ran the Ziff’s London office, started trading at his Thunderbird Partners this year with $1.5 billion, according to a regulatory filing, and he chose to stop accepting any more money for the time being, said people with knowledge of the firm. His investors include the Ziff brothers, the University of Texas endowment and Charlottesville, Virginia- based Investure, an endowment money manager, according to the people, who asked not to be named because the firm is private.

Soros Check

Isaac Corre is getting at least one big check from a large investor. He’s opening his New York-based Governors Lane to focus on event-driven investing in the next few months. George Soros’s family office is putting in as much as $500 million, according to people familiar with the firm. Corre comes from Eton Park Capital Management, the hedge fund firm run by Eric Mindich, who himself was among the biggest startups ever, amassing $3.5 billion out of the gate in 2004.

Bankers expect that Rokos, who generated more than $4 billion as a trader at Brevan Howard, will raise billions when he starts his own firm later this year. Rokos recently settled a legal battle with his former boss, Alan Howard, over whether he could manage money for outside clients before 2018. As part of their settlement, Brevan, which posted its first loss last year, will have a financial interest in the yet-unnamed firm.

Some of the managers have come out of successful firms that limit the amount of money they take in, helping to spur interest in their alumni. Cederholm focused on fixed income and distressed investments at Elliott, which only periodically opens for new investments.

Lion Point

Cederholm is starting Lion Point Capital next month, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm will focus on buying and selling stocks, bonds, bank loans and other securities of companies going through corporate events including bankruptcies and restructurings.

Himanshu Gulati, who spent nine years at Perry Capital, is starting a competing distressed credit fund in New York in July. It will begin with around $1 billion with a seed investment from Man Group Plc’s GLG unit, according to a person familiar with the fund.