Philip Richards stepped down on Thursday as chief executive of RAB Capital to focus on running the Aim-listed company’s biggest hedge fund, saying it was “too onerous” to manage the company as well as the fund amid market turmoil. The Special Situations fund run by Richards, the ‘R’ in RAB, fell 37.5% in the year to Aug 21, hurt by its investments in small companies. The fund was the second-biggest shareholder in Northern Rock when the bank was nationalised and is working with SRM Global, a Monaco-based hedge fund, on a legal challenge. The move comes as many hedge funds have tried to refocus, with some dumping poorly performing operations. To Lombard, Richards looks like “the hedge fund equivalent of the player-manager whose on-field form starts to suffer”, although his 26% stake in RAB makes him more like a “wounded general who decides to lead a charge out of trouble, a courageous course of action, but a risky one”.
