Even in an elite social strata where the haves are outnumbered by the have-yachts, this is no ordinary party. When the people organising Nat Rothschild’s 40th birthday celebration sent out invitations to the billionaire tycoons, hedge fund managers, high-end art dealers and east European glamourpusses who are numbered among his 150 closest friends, they helpfully included information on how to make arrangements for arrival by private jet.
The airport at Tivat in Montenegro will be busier than Heathrow on Christmas Eve next week, as guests fly in from around the world for three days of partying in honour of one of the most intriguing and publicity-shy members of the exclusive club of financiers who continue to enjoy spectacular success in bleak economic times.
Fresh from raising £1.35 billion (his target had been £1 billion) for the new oil and gas venture he will run with the former BP boss Tony Hayward, Mr Rothschild will have no anxieties about picking up the tab for the bash, which is expected to run into millions of euros.
The party is centred on the Porto Montenegro marina development, a millionaires’ playground in which he is an investor. The 72-hour bash will see the intersection of the different worlds Mr Rothschild inhabits. Those invited included Oleg Deripaska, one of Russia’s richest men, Lord Mandelson, the art dealer Jay Jopling and the British-born author and New York social butterfly Plum Sykes.
“He’s very well connected,” said Peter Munk, the octogenarian Canadian billionaire who is Mr Rothschild’s mentor and a fellow investor in Porto Montenegro. “His Rolodex is equally valid in Beijing or Moscow or Kiev.”
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As well as his parents, Lord and Lady Rothschild, and his siblings, including Hannah, a documentary maker, members of other famous dynasties are expected to attend, including representatives of the Guinness and Goldsmith clans. Friends had been gossiping that the eclectic mix of Mr Rothschild’s friends would be evidenced by the sight of tycoons hobnobbing with exotically named models such as Sasha Volkova. However, it was feared that she would not be there after all.
The combined net worth of those in attendance will be many billions and there will be no shortage of beautiful women. One of those may or may not be Princess Florence von Preussen, a 27-year-old descendant of Kaiser Wilhelm II, and with whom Mr Rothschild is said to have an “on-off” relationship. (He was briefly married in the 1990s.) Two of Mr Rothschild’s good friends, Larry Gagosian, the über art dealer who looks after Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons, and Jean Pigozzi, an art collector and photographer, will be at the party. Another close friend is the billionaire investor Nicolas Berggruen.
Porto Montenegro is a glorious corner of the Adriatic where sheer mountainsides crash into deep waters that can accommodate huge yachts. The majority of guests who are not staying on swanky boats will be billeted at the Hotel Splendid, a large beachfront hotel that featured in the Bond movie Casino Royale. The festivities will begin with an informal dinner at a restaurant on Thursday. The main event will be a poolside disco hosted by Mr Rothschild on Friday night (guests have been told that the dress code is “disco chic”). On Saturday the party moves on to a jetty alongside the yachts, including the Queen K, the 72-metre vessel belonging to Mr Deripaska.
The Queen K became a footnote in the annals of the last government when it was the setting for a remarkable post-holiday spat in 2008. Mr Rothschild wrote a letter to The Times claiming that George Osborne had brought the Conservative Party’s fundraiser on to the boat, when it was moored in Corfu, to try to solicit a donation from Mr Deripaska. The Conservatives denied the claim. Mr Rothschild wrote his letter after Mr Osborne had been the source of stories in which Lord Mandelson, who was also a guest of Mr Rothschild in Corfu, had been said to have “dripped poison” into Mr Osborne’s ear about Gordon Brown. The financier was furious that a private gathering of friends had created news.
Mr Osborne is not expected at the party. Nor was Mr Rothschild at Mr Osborne’s own 40th birthday celebration this year. The men had known each other since prep school and at Oxford both were members of the notorious Bullingdon Club.
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One definite absentee will be Saif Gaddafi. The son of the Libyan leader held his 37th birthday party at Porto Montenegro two years ago, but this week the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest. Mr Rothschild knows Mr Gaddafi socially but has never done business with him.
Once upon a time Mr Rothschild had a hard-partying image but is now teetotal. The only son of the fourth Baron Rothschild, he built an independent career in asset management that has taken his net worth past £1 billion.
“He is taken very seriously by the business community,” says a friend who will be at the party. They don’t look on him as a lucky sperm. It’s ironic that this is going to be quite a party because he is not a natural partygoer.”
Mr Munk, who has a house close to Mr Rothschild in Klosters, Switzerland, and was an early investor in his projects, said that Mr Rothschild was loyal to his friends. “When he likes you — and he has got many people he doesn’t like — he can show an amazing spirit of generosity.”
What will Mr Munk be buying the man who has everything? “My speech will be [that] he doesn’t need a present. How many more gifts does he need, the boy?”