Robert Mercer, Bannon Patron, Is Leaving Helm of $50 Billion Hedge Fund
November 3, 2017 by admin
Filed under Choosing Lingerie
Mr. Mercer, 71, sought in his letter to employees to distance himself from Mr. Bannon, who has gone back to running Breitbart News, the divisive media outlet and hub for nationalist and far-right activism. He said he was selling his investment in Breitbart to his daughters, who also are active in conservative politics.
“I have great respect for Mr. Bannon, and from time to time I do discuss politics with him,” Mr. Mercer wrote. “However, I make my own decisions with respect to whom I support politically. Those decisions do not always align with Mr. Bannon’s.”
His departure is not likely to fundamentally alter either Renaissance’s status as one of the most profitable hedge funds or Mr. Mercer’s status as one of the most sought-after financiers in the conservative ecosystem. In fact, the firm took on $1 billion of new funds in the past month.
But it illustrates how the worlds of politics and business are colliding in the Donald Trump era. President Trump has tried to surround himself with corporate executives, but the president’s actions and rhetoric have left some of these leaders facing angry customers and employees. A number of presidential advisory councils, for example, disbanded this summer as chief executives resigned in protest over Mr. Trump’s lukewarm denunciations of white supremacists.
Mr. Mercer followed an unusual route to become arguably the most powerful person in the right-wing movement that thrust Mr. Trump into the White House.
A shy computer coder and model-train aficionado, he spent years at I.B.M. before joining Renaissance in 1993. He helped build the hedge fund into one of the industry’s most successful firms.
Beyond donating to political campaigns, Mr. Mercer became a large financial backer of Cambridge Analytica, a voter-data firm that worked closely with the presidential campaign of Mr. Trump.
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Lawmakers in Washington are scrutinizing Cambridge Analytica in connection with investigations into Russian meddling in the presidential election; the company has turned over documents to the House intelligence committee.
Mr. Mercer and his daughter Rebekah were instrumental in Breitbart’s rise into a powerful force in conservative politics.
That backing has become controversial, partly because of the site’s connections to white nationalists. One especially inflammatory Breitbart personality, Milo Yiannopoulos, reportedly has received financial support from the Mercers.
Mr. Mercer on Thursday distanced himself from Breitbart, Mr. Bannon and Mr. Yiannopoulos, who resigned from Breitbart earlier this year.
“Actions of and statements by Mr. Yiannopoulos have caused pain and divisiveness undermining the open and productive discourse that I had hoped to facilitate,” Mr. Mercer wrote. “I was mistaken to have supported him, and for several weeks have been in the process of severing all ties with him.”
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Mr. Yiannopoulos said in a statement: “I am grateful for Bob’s help in getting me this far in my career. I wish him and the family all the best.”
Activist groups recently have pressured university investment funds to pull their money from Renaissance. The college Democratic organization at Michigan State University, for example, recently began calling on the university’s endowment to withdraw its roughly $50 million investment.
This week, students at the State University of New York at Stony Brook on Long Island voiced concern about donations to the university from Mr. Mercer and Renaissance.
Mr. Randall of the Baltimore retirement fund compared the decision to redeem money from Renaissance to the decision of whether to invest in a tobacco company or gun manufacturer. He said Renaissance is one of the fund’s best performing investments.
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Not all investors were bothered by the controversy surrounding Mr. Mercer. The endowment for Michigan State has no plans to withdraw its money despite the campus protests, said Jason Cody, a university spokesman.
“We hire investment managers based on their long-term expected performance and fit for the overall portfolio,” Mr. Cody said. “We do not consider the personal political opinions and private activities of individual employees when making decisions.”
Steve Yoakum, executive director for Public School Retirement System of Missouri, another Renaissance investor, said the furor over Mr. Mercer was a “manufactured issue.” He said performance trumped anything else.
Renaissance has made its investors lots of money. Its three main funds that are open to outside investors are up more than 10 percent through October this year. So far this year, the hedge fund has attracted about $10 billion in new assets.
The combination of Renaissance’s consistently strong performances, its secretive nature and its leaders’ idiosyncratic personalities have created an aura of mystique around the firm. Mr. Mercer’s pivotal and prominent support for Mr. Trump shoved Renaissance into the spotlight.
For example Mr. Mercer hosts a well-known holiday costume party at his Long Island estate. Last year, the president-elect and a coterie of his top advisers were among the guests.
Honoring the ultimate hero at the Mercer “Heroes and Villians” party on Long Island. Crowd thrilled w/ surprise! pic.twitter.com/VQAyaKvs6i
—
Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls)
Dec. 4, 2016
“Mercer is now such a controversial figure, that must cause all kinds of difficulties for the company,” said Nick Patterson, a computational biologist at the Broad Institute, who hired Mr. Mercer at Renaissance. He said Mr. Mercer’s prominence could make it harder for Renaissance to hire the best people.
Even as he steps down from Renaissance, Mr. Mercer is likely to accelerate his political giving in the future, according to people with knowledge of Mr. Mercer’s thinking who were not authorized to speak publicly.
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Without a day-to-day role in Renaissance management, these people said, Mr. Mercer would have more freedom and time to devote to his philanthropy and other activities, including an effort to recruit and support conservative candidates who want to replace the current Republican leadership in Congress.
Mr. Mercer’s departure could stem investor defections from Renaissance. Mr. Randall said that with Mr. Mercer leaving, the Baltimore pension fund could reconsider its request to withdraw the $33 million.
“My professional position is I don’t think this will be the last discussion concerning Renaissance,” he said.
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