Florian Homm has always attracted attention. He stands more than two metres tall, is the scion of a wealthy dynasty and a pioneer in European investment management, having established a hedge fund in 1993 when most German fund managers had barely heard of CAPM. He also did eye-catching things, such as getting shot in Venezuela and winning multiple awards from such respected publications as Hedge Fund Review and Eurohedge.
Homm is now on "holiday", having resigned last month as the co-chief investment officer of Aim-listed Absolute Capital Management. This stock almost achieved the remarkable feat of halving in price for three consecutive days, but instead merely fell more than 70%. Rated a buy by house broker Panmure Gordon at 569p (target price 700p), it was trading at 60p on September 20.
Shareholders were not just unnerved by the loss of Herr Homm’s investment talent but also by the bizarre manner of his departure. In an open letter he explained how he had used 5 million of his own shares in Absolute to boost the performance of three hedge funds. This philanthropic gesture worked – the net asset values of these funds were stable through the turmoil in August.