As chairman of Cromwell Property Group, Paul Weightman saw plenty of corporate jousting. Now, having stepped down from the ASX-listed property group and founded Corinthia Global Management, Mr Weightman has managed to get under the skin of one of the world’s largest investors: Barings.

Last month, the private credit manager founded by Mr Weightman capped a stellar run since its establishment, carrying out one of the largest corporate raids at a US asset manager in years. The firm, founded last year with the backing of Japanese investment bank Nomura, snared more than 20 staff from Barings, a subsidiary of life insurer MassMutual and the manager of $US381 billion ($584 billion) in assets.