(Bloomberg) -- The family office for Maria Angelicoussis, Greece’s richest shipping magnate, is boosting publicly traded investments after notching up huge gains in private market bets, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Nicrone, the private investment firm of Angelicoussis Group’s owner, has pivoted since former hedge fund executive Laura Lavers took over last year, the people said, asking not to be identified as details on the firm’s strategy are private. Nicrone previously mostly allocated to private markets.
The family office has also recently hired Ben Goldsmith, a 39-year-old former executive at London-based stock-picking firm Zeno Equity Partners, as part of the refocus, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. Goldsmith, who left Zeno in March, is now London-based head of public markets at Nicrone, according to his LinkedIn profile.
A representative for Angelicoussis – who has a net worth of $6.6 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index – declined to comment. Goldsmith didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Like most personal investment firms for the world’s super-rich, Nicrone is closely held and doesn’t publicly disclose its assets under management or performance. The family office’s previous investments in private markets led to gains of more than 100%, Bloomberg previously reported, and the firm continues to hold allocations in the area.
The pivot to public markets gives an insight into how the Angelicoussis family are managing their wealth following several bumper years of soaring freight prices amid the disruption of Covid-19. Public markets investments were an area favored by Maria’s father, John, who died in 2021 and led his family’s business for more than three decades.
He invested proceeds from the Athens-based shipping company into US stocks including Apple Inc. The portfolio was sold during the pandemic as record-low interest rates helped fuel a surge in stock markets worldwide, with the proceeds used to establish Nicrone, the people said.
Family Office Bet
Nicrone was established in Cyprus in 2022, and set up a London branch the following year when Lavers joined the family office, regulatory filings show. Lavers, a former partner at David Fear’s Thunderbird Partners hedge fund, previously served on Nicrone’s investment committee, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Angelicoussis, 42, is chief executive officer of the maritime firm bearing her name, which is now in its third generation and has a fleet of about 145 vessels. She’s Greece’s second-richest person after banking heiress Vicky Safra, according to Bloomberg’s wealth index.
A recent Citigroup Inc. survey of 338 of its family office clients found allocations to public equities made up the largest part of their portfolios, with almost a third typically held in the area.
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