London's prosperous tribe of hedge fund managers trumped their New York rivals on Friday night after turning the annual ARK charity dinner into the richest ever single evening fund-raising event.

 

Hedge fund glitterati break charity record

By Topaz Amoore (Filed: 07/05/2006)

 

 

London's prosperous tribe of hedge fund managers trumped their New York rivals on Friday night after turning the annual ARK charity dinner into the richest ever single evening fund-raising event.

The fabulous ball at Marlborough House, where 1,000 guests were serenaded by Sir Elton John, is believed to have raised well over £17.5m - outstripping the record $31.9m (£17.2m) pledged by US hedge fund members at their Robin Hood Foundation event last year.

"I am simply overwhelmed by people's generosity," said Arki Busson, the chairman of the EIM hedge fund business and the founder of ARK.

"Every year it just gets better for the thousands of children whose lives we can save and improve. Elton John is a superstar and a wonderful supporter."

There was frenzied bidding at the tables of leading hedge fund names including EIM, Louis Bacon, Paul Tudor Jones and Marshall Wace.

A Damien Hirst spin painting fetched £340,000, the highest single bid of the night, while the chance to return Sir Elton's "devilish backhand", as the Sotheby's auctioneer Lord Dalmeny put it, in a tennis match in the South of France went for £70,000.

A guitar lesson with Chris Martin, the lead singer of Coldplay, followed by dinner with his wife Gwyneth Paltrow, made £140,000.

A group of anonymous ARK supporters has already agreed to pledge £3 for every £1 raised in the auction. The charity focuses on HIV/Aids treatment programmes in South Africa, closing Romanian orphanages and funding programmes to prevent teenage pregnancy and family breakdown in Britain.

The grand scale of the dinner and the bullish atmosphere were testament to the growing confidence and stature of London's hedge fund industry. Bill Clinton sent a personal letter of endorsement to every guest and Archbishop Desmond Tutu videotaped a message of thanks.

Surrounding roads were blocked off, causing traffic chaos, after Busson arranged for The Sultan's Elephant - a wooden mechanised elephant the size of a three-storey house, which is visiting London for a street theatre event - to greet guests with a wave of its trunk in Pall Mall.

Guests included Michael Spencer of Icap, Michael Sherwood, the head of Goldman Sachs Europe, Eddie Jordan, Stelios Haji--Ioannou of easyJet, the philanthropist Lily Safra and the environmentalist Zac Goldsmith.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2006/05/07/cnbuson07.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2006/05/07/ixcitytop.html

Gawd - I'd love to get guitar lessons with Mr Martin.

 

We wouldn't just be learning guitar...:wink3:

It would be a little bit expensive :stunned:

but worth it I would imagine! hehe. And dinner too! I'd love that! Although I wouldnt be able to think of anything to say! lol

"Hey Chris, how much do you charge per hour...?"

 

"About £50,000..."

 

:shocked2::sick::lol:

done!