One of the most senior figures in the London office of the feared American activist hedge fund Elliott is preparing to start his own firm.
Mark Levine, who left Elliott two years ago, is setting up Sargasso Partners, a London-based family office that will manage his personal wealth as well as that of other families.
The nascent firm, which has yet to start investing, will not pursue the type of activist strategies that Levine, 47, was famous for during his 23-year career at Elliott. Even so, it will mark a return to prominence for him.
Paul Singer founded Elliott Advisors in 1977
THOS ROBINSON/GETTY IMAGES FOR NEW YORK TIMES
Elliott was founded by Paul Singer, a lawyer, in 1977 and is one of the world’s most aggressive activist investors, building stakes in companies and agitating for change. Its campaigns have involved urging businesses to break up or sell themselves and it is adept at using the courts to further its goals.
It came to international fame when it pursued Argentina for 15 years over its debt default, eventually securing $2.4 billion, and has become one of the world’s largest activist funds, managing assets worth almost $70 billion and employing 570 staff around the world. The success of the business has made a billionaire of Singer, who is now 80, and fortunes for other senior employees.
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The firm opened an office in London in 1994 and Levine, an American who joined Elliott in 1999, became one of its top fund managers in the UK. During his career he oversaw campaigns against British companies including National Express, the coach and rail business, Alliance Trust, the investments giant, and GSK, the FTSE 100 drugmaker.
While at Elliott he was close to Gordon Singer, the son of the fund’s founder who has run its London office since 2009.
Levine is one of a string of top London-based employees who have left the firm in recent years. Others include James Bayliss, who was Elliott’s head trader in the UK and left last year; Mark Wills, who left in 2022 and has founded Cisu Capital Partners, a hedge fund; and Franck Tuil, who set up Sparta Capital Management in 2021.
Levine declined to comment.
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