Three decades since Caledonia, Australia’s largest and most private hedge fund, was created, it still follows its bigger bets with an almost religious fervour.
In one telling of the Caledonia origin story, Will Vicars is floating off the coast of Queensland in his yacht while negotiating better terms for a $US11.9 billion deal to merge the Chicago Board of Trade, where the fund is a major shareholder, with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
Vicars had been introduced to CBOT via a dinner Caledonia founder Mark Nelson had with John Murray, according to the Sydney stockbroker, in Italy in 2002. Murray had bought a membership – a sought-after position that allowed holders to trade at reduced fees – and wondered if the recent digitisation of the ASX, which had resulted in an explosion of activity, could be applied in Chicago.
Primrose RiordanAssociate editorPrimrose Riordan covers private companies and family offices from the AFR's Sydney newsroom. Primrose was previously a correspondent for the Financial Times and covered foreign affairs and politics in Canberra. Primrose has won multiple awards for her journalism including from The National Press Club, SABEW in the US and Press Gazette in the UK. Message Primrose on Signal: https://tinyurl.com/PrimroseSignal Connect with Primrose on Facebook and Twitter. Email Primrose at primrose.riordan@afr.com
Jonathan ShapiroSenior reporterJonathan Shapiro writes about banking and finance, specialising in hedge funds, corporate debt, private equity and investment banking. He is based in Sydney. Connect with Jonathan on Twitter. Email Jonathan at jonathan.shapiro@afr.com
