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Nat Rothschild's stakes in mining groups and money from his investment funds have pushed his wealth up to the £1bn mark
As a scion of the world's most famous banking family, Nat Rothschild was never going to be a pauper. Even if he had continued to live the famed playboy lifestyle he enjoyed at university, the son of Lord Jacob Rothschild was always thought to be in line for a £500m inheritance.
But now the 39-year-old has joined his super-rich friends – such as Russian metals tycoon Oleg Deripaska and Ivan Glasenberg at soon-to-be-floated commodity trading house Glencore – having achieved billionaire billing in his own right.
Rothschild's stakes in mining group Vallar and Chateau Lafite are now valued at about £400m according to the latest Sunday Times Rich List, while his holdings in businesses of friends and family, such as Deripaska's Rusal, Glencore and investment trust RIT Capital Partners are worth £150m. Other wealth, including stakes in electrical group Volex and money made from his hedge fund, Atticus, have pushed the financier's wealth up to the £1bn mark.
It is an heroic number that only a few years ago appeared completely unobtainable. At school and university at Eton and Oxford, tales of Rothschild's social life were legion, with stories of a string of girlfriends as well as a fondness for extravagant parties. These tales continued after he left university and while travelling in India he met a model called Annabelle Neilson, who he swiftly married and almost as quickly divorced. However, since concentrating on his business career – and becoming close to the likes of Deripaska and former minister Lord Mandelson – stories of hedonism and girlfriends have decreased.
Of course, Rothschild's closeness to the Russian tycoon and one of the founders of New Labour still shapes the financier's reputation. In 2009 while in Corfu, he infamously invited George Osborne – the then shadow chancellor, an old university friend and co-member of the Bullingdon club – on board the Queen K, Deripaska's £80m yacht moored off the island. They were joined by Mandelson, then the EU trade commissioner, and the conversation proved politically explosive.
Back in Westminster, Osborne gossiped about Mandelson speaking "pure poison" about Gordon Brown which, among other things, provoked much speculation about the previously lower profile links between Mandelson, Rothschild and Deripaska.
The revenge was brutal: from his base in the Swiss ski resort of Klosters, Rothschild wrote to The Times accusing Osborne and Andrew Feldman, the Tories' fundraiser, of trying to solicit a donation for the Conservative party from Deripaska – an approach which would have breached party fundraising rules. It was swiftly denied by the Conservatives, but for months Osborne appeared politically emasculated.
Still, all seem to have moved on now, with Rothschild shaking off other setbacks, such as the closure of the flagship funds at Atticus, to create a business empire which has prompted the New York Times to predict that he may become "the richest Rothschild of them all".
The new fortune has been built on old-fashioned Rothschild contact-building, as well as business savvy: the financier's relationship with Deripaska is seen by many observers to be key, and the pair's closeness may provide the motivation behind the 2009 knifing of Osborne.
Certainly Rothschild's circle appears tight, with the same powerful names, who control large portions of the natural resources sector, always seeming to emerge. His friend Glasenberg sits on the board of Deripaska's Rusal, where Glencore and Rothschild are leading investors. Glencore, in which Rothschild's £25m convertible bond will soon yield a 50% return, is also a large shareholder in miner Bumi, in which Rothschild's Vallar owns a quarter stake. Meanwhile, Vallar's prospectus mentions Glencore 73 times, an indication of the importance of the trading group's long-term marketing deals with the group's assets.
The circular nature of Rothschild's business network does not end there. Tony Hayward, the former BP chief executive who is in talks about setting up a natural resources fund with Rothschild, has just been named a new director of Glencore. Meanwhile, during the trading group's search for a chairman, which ended with the farcical appointment of Simon Murray, Glasenberg called Rothschild to obtain Murray's mobile telephone number.
Elsewhere, Roland Rudd's City PR firm, Finsbury, spins for Vallar, Glencore and Deripaska. Rudd's close friend Mandelson has a new venture called Global Counsel, which is owned by marketing group WPP, Finsbury's owner. Rothschild is also thought to be close to Roman Abramovich, the billionaire oligarch who owns Chelsea, where Deripaska takes a box in which Rothschild is known to be a frequent guest.All of which is a long way from Lazards in 1994, when Rothschild began his financial career.
A year later he had moved to New York where he met Timothy Barakett, the founder of Atticus, which at its peak managed more than $20bn (£12bn) for wealthy investors.
After initially recording stellar returns, and earning Rothschild a small fortune for his contribution, the flagship funds made big losses, prompting Rothschild's father to redeem his £36.5m investment and the fund to subsequently return cash to investors.