Nathaniel (Nat) Rothschild is friends with some of the richest and most powerful people in the world and has a sizeable fortune of his own. The Sunday Times Rich List has estimated that he is worth £330 million and he is likely to inherit at least the same amount again.
Friends say that despite this wealth, he remains driven to succeed, to do deals and make money. A City banker said: “I guess in every generation of Rothschild there is one that makes a lot of money and Nat is that one for the 21st century.”
However, Mr Rothschild, 38, has had a difficult credit crunch and the Atticus Capital hedge fund that he co-chaired and part-owned was effectively wound up last year. At its peak, it had $20 billion under management, but redemptions after a period of poor performance led to two of its three funds being shut.
Mr Rothschild bounced back from this disappointment with his new investment vehicle, Vallar.
The model that he is understood to be pursuing is that of Xstrata, the mining company that has increased its value by 15 times in eight years.
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If Vallar achieves similar success, Mr Rothschild could see his personal wealth increase to billions of pounds.
A person close to Vallar said: “Nat Rothschild is very ambitious and the Xstrata model is an interesting one.”
Mr Rothschild has made other large investments in the resources sector in the past year, including a $100 million stake in the flotation of Rusal. The aluminium company is owned by one of his friends — Oleg Deripaska. He sits on the advisory board of Rusal and is thought to have invested $40 million in bonds issued by Glencore, another Rusal shareholder and the company behind Xstrata.