Morning Coffee: Senior banking MD's new girlfriend reveals he bears little resemblance to LinkedIn photo. Hudson River Trading's immense operational leverage
Amidst the furore over the alleged abusive relationship at JPMorgan, there are good news stories about financial services relations out there. One of them concerns Shane L. Campbell, a senior managing director who has found himself proclaimed as a fabulous find.
Campbell is "romantic", "deliberate," and "chivalrous." He treats his girlfriend to extravagant, intentional and "planned out" dates. He's willing to drive an hour and a half for these occasions, which last five hours. He will roller skate. "There are still amazing men out there. … Do not accept low-hanging fruit and low lifts of just, like, checking in with you and giving you the news and the weather,” declares his girlfriend. The only thing Campbell does not appear good at is texting, where he can possibly be "bread-crumby."
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We know all this about Campbell, who is a senior managing director at FTI Consulting in Miami, because his girlfriend is reality television star Bethenny Frankel from Real House Wives of New York. Frankel has been posting about Campbell on her Instagram account and questions have been asked about Campbell's identity. It has been observed by Frankel's followers that Campbell does not have much of an Instagram account and that this contributes to his appeal.
Campbell does not do Instagram but he does do LinkedIn, where he bears no resemblance to the Campbell unearthed by Frankel. While the latter looks like an ageing rock star with tousled blonde hair and a possible stylist, the former resembles a conservative Princeton graduate who's spent 20 years in midmarket M&A. It is a reminder that managing directors may not be what they seem. And that if you stop slicking your hair you can look like a much more approachable person.
Separately, Hudson River Trading (HRT), which hires 0.1% of applicants, pays them an average of £940k each in London, and is "truly kind," also prints huge amounts of money.
Bloomberg reports that Hudson River generated $6.4bn of revenues in the first quarter and $4.2bn of profits, a margin of 65%.
Hudson River's profitability is growing. In Q1 its profits were up 175% year-on-year. Its trading revenues were up 135%. Rupak Ghose notes that Hudson River appears on track to generate $23.3m in revenues per employee, compared to a mere $18.3m at Jane Street. HRT now has 20% of US cash equities trading, he observes.
Meanwhile...
Why JPMorgan probably offered Chirayu Rana $1m to go away: “For business executives, your time is money. These conflicts create friction and noise. It makes more economic sense to pay money and move on. Flat-out.” (WSJ)
Citi’s spread intermediation revenues appear to have halved since 2021. The bank exited municipal bond and distressed debt trading but it also seems to be suffering from margin pressure in credit flow trading. (IFRE)
KKR's largest private credit fund owned by individual investors, named 'FS KKR Capital FSK' took a writedown of $560m in the first quarter. The fund has $12.3bn in AUM. Its CEO is saying: “We believe FSK’s current stock price underappreciates the long-term value.” (WSJ)
Goldman Sachs' London business says its M&A revenues fell in the first quarter. (GS International)
BlackRock has been hiring active bond managers. The latest of these is Alexander Payne from Morgan Stanley Investment Management who will head the mortgage team within its active fixed-income group. (WSJ)
75 OpenAI employees have been allowed to sell $30m worth of shares each. (WSJ)
Wells Fargo is now spending 700% more than before to protect its CEO. (The Banker)
Paresh Raja of MFS is accused of misappropriating at least £1.3bn to fund a “lavish lifestyle". His spokesman said he strongly denies all the allegations and that, "Assets which the administrators characterise as missing were held through nominee structures for the benefit of MFS and its creditors, a position set out in detail to the administrators in March 2026.” (Financial Times)
At Davos, Nigel Farage said "I don't like banks much" and promised to stop the Bank of England paying interest on reserves held by commercial banks. Reforms' then head of policy subsequently declared that these were "‘for the cameras’ comments" and that Reform is "committed to banks thriving.” (Financial Times)
Hedge funds are buying distressed litigation finance assets relating to ongoing court cases at 10 cents on the dollar, or even nothing and are agreeing to pay sellers a small amount if the lawsuit wins. (Bloomberg)
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