35-year-old London hedge fund prodigy paying $1.4m in support staff hiring spree
Hamza Lemssouguer is thriving. The former Credit Suisse trading prodigy with a parrot farm in Surrey runs his own credit fund, Arini Capital. Bloomberg reported this week that Arini has circa $12bn in assets under management and returned 17% in the year to August. Newly released accounts for 2024 also reveal that profits doubled at Arini last year, as did headcount.
Arini Capital Management, Arini's London entity, generated revenues of $189m and profits of $64m last year, increases of 35% and 140% respectively. As it did so, it increased London headcount from 25 to 49 people.
Arini's London hiring spree was focused on building out its infrastructure. The fund was founded by Lemssouguer four years ago. Lemssouguer famously generated on $120m of profits on Credit Suisse's junk bond desk at the age of 29. Arini initially used infrastructure provided by Squarepoint Capital, but has now begun building its very own.
As the fund added lower cost non-investment staff, it spent less money on pay. Headcount doubled, but spending on wages and salaries fell 21% to $68m. Arini still spent an average $1.4m per head, but this was down from the $3.5m it spent in 2023.
London isn't Arini's only office. It also has offices in the US and Abu Dhabi. Globally, it now employs over 105 people.
Arini specialises in credit investments. Over 80% of its assets are invested in performing credit (public and private) with the rest in special situations and distressed credit. Bloomberg says around half of its capital comes from investors in North America. This summer, it launched a private credit fund with Lazard.
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