LIVING THE HIGH LIFE
I’m ‘Britain’s richest man’ worth £14bn with £120m superyacht & £25m Bombardier Challenger jet – I first traded aged 12
The billionaire certainly hasn't been shy with his expenses
BRITAIN'S richest man is worth 14billion, holidays on a £120million superyacht and chalks up air miles in a £25m private jet.
But despite his prominence many, including his own company's receptionist, have no idea who the camera shy mogul is.
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Hedge fund tycoon Michael Platt is happy to splash the cash on a fleet of luxury goods, though he's seldom seen in the public eye.
The businessman, who claims never to have suffered an annual loss, is said to spend a lot of his wealth on art, which he displays in the crypt of a deconsecrated church in Marylebone, central London.
The collection includes a depiction of Christ in an electric chair beside skulls, a selection of stags’ heads, 5bn-year-old meteorites, a depiction of a Japanese woman riding a walrus and the levitation of St John the Baptist.
Other pieces in the collection include works by taxidermist Polly Morgan, the Turner prize-winner Keith Tyson and Reece Jones.
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Deep-pocketed Platt has also allegedly forked out a fortune on a swanky Chelsea penthouse with views of the Shard and the London Eye and a 3,000 sq ft apartment, with three roof terraces and private elevator, overlooking Central Park in New York, .
Platt reportedly also owns a 246 ft superyacht valued at £120million, a Bombardier Challenger private jet.
In a viral video from 2019, Platt was captured boasting about his wealth during a ride in a New York taxi.
Clad in a jacket and dress shirt, he confidently proclaimed himself as the highest-earning individual in the world of finance when asked what he does for a living.
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"You’re the highest what?" asked the cabbie.
Platt replied: "I’m the highest-earning person in the world of finance. In the world."
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When Platt and his BlueCrest co-founder William Reeves, a Yale graduate, were interviewed by the Times ahead of the company’s floatation in 2006, they refused to be photographed under any circumstances.
"They guard their privacy fiercely and detest their regular appearances in newspaper rich lists," financial editor Patrick Hosking wrote.
RAPID RISE
Platt first started investing when he was just 14 thanks to a £500 birthday present from his grandmother.
The precocious teen won a place at Imperial College London to study civil engineering but switched after a year because he found the course boring, to read mathematics and economics at the London School of Economics.
He made up to £30,000 as an undergraduate investing in the newly privatised utilities but his stock lost half its value in a single day during the crash of October 1987.
Platt says it was one of the few times he has ever been unsuccessful.
After graduating from university, he joined JP Morgan, where he gained a number of rapid promotions before he founded BlueCrest Management in 2000.
The company is now regarded as one of the biggest private investment firms in the world and generated returns as high as 153 per cent in 2022.
Platt also made a brief appearance on the US TV show, Billions, currently showing on Paramount+.
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In his private life, his marriage to Helen Sanderson in 1995 produced two children but would later end in divorce.
Platt’s own son Marcus, who is in his mid-20s, is now following in his father’s footsteps. He recently joined BlueCrest.
MICHAEL PLATT'S EXTRAVAGANT POSSESSIONS
Penthouses in London and New York
A waterfront flat in St Helier, Jersey
Homes in Swiss ski resort Verbier and Geneva
A 246 ft superyacht
A Bombardier Challenger jet
A private modern art collection
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