Elena Ambrosiadou, who set up one of London’s most successful hedge fund groups, Ikos Partners, has decided to relocate to Cyprus.
According to a Sunday Times report, Ambrosiadou, 47, who has an estimated wealth of GBP 200 mln, is quitting London because she believes Cyprus offers a better environment in which to grow the business.
“Elena has a five-year strategic plan to grow the assets under management from $2.8 billion (GBP 1.5 billion) at the moment to $10 billion by 2010. Cyprus offers a good environment in which to do this. There is a more benign tax environment, a highly talented English-speaking workforce, and it is closer to Middle Eastern investors,” said a spokesperson for Ikos Partners.
Having become BP’s youngest-ever senior executive at the age of 27, Ambrosiadou started Ikos, which means “home” in Greek, in 1992 as one of the first hedge funds set up in London.
She put $100,000 of her own money into an account that would trade foreign exchange based on a computer programme she designed. When the fund went up 50% in two years, she decided to work on it full-time.
Since then, the flagship Financial fund has generated a total return of 144.4% and an annualised return of 10.2%.
Ikos is worth GBP 180 mln given the values ascribed to good hedge funds. According to documents filed at Companies House, Ambrosiadou, 46, the only director of Ikos, was paid a total of GBP 15.9 mln last financial year. With nearly GBP 8 mln the previous year, she is easily worth GBP 200 mln after tax.
The Sunday Times Rich List for 2006 placed Elena Ambrosiadou 295th in the rankings of Britain’s 1000 richest and 25th wealthiest woman. The Queen is only 15th with GBP 300 mln. There were only 77 women among the list of 1000 wealthiest, while the combined wealth of Britain’s 100 richest women is GBP 29.4 bln.
Elena is also regarded as the second wealthiest woman in the City after Nichola Pease, chief executive of JO Hambro Capital Management (GBP 283 mln), but far ahead of Carol Galley who headed Mercury Asset Management until 2001 and was regarded as the most powerful woman in the City in the 1990s (GBP 80 mln), and Jayne Sutcliffe, chief executive of Charlemagne Capital (GBP 60 mln).
As of July 1, Ikos’s head office is in Cyprus, regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm will keep its Brighton research office, but London will be used only as a base for meetings.
“I grew up as a person in Thessaloniki and as a professional in London, both of which gave me massive advantages,” says Ambrosiadou.
She still finds time to act as patron of the children’s charity Ark and trustee of the Oxford Philomusica Orchestra.
