Sir Chris Hohn, son of a Jamaican motor mechanic, will take more than half a billion pounds from the wreck of his marriage due to his extraordinary achievements as an ‘activist investor’.
His City coups were worth billions and included a profit of more than £600million from the takeover that led to the collapse of the Royal Bank of Scotland, as well as a £100million profit from last year’s botched privatisation of Royal Mail.
Sir Chris’s wife Jamie Cooper-Hohn is likely to appeal against the decision by Mrs Justice Roberts to deny her an equal share of the couple’s vast wealth.
Mrs Cooper-Hohn, who has been awarded £330million, raised their four children and ran the charitable foundations into which her husband poured most of the money made.
The judge said, however, that he had also played a major role in managing the charities and that the couple would have no fortune to divide without him.
‘There are various definitions of the word genius but all seem to suggest that, in order to qualify for this sobriquet, a person must have some exceptional natural capacity or intellectual or creative power or other natural ability which finds reflection in the exercise of an exceptional skill in a particular area of activity,’ Mrs Justice Roberts said.
‘Applying that definition to this husband, I take the view he qualifies as a financial genius in his particular field of financial investment. If he does not, who could?’
The High Court settlement, the largest dealt with by the London courts, is likely to influence future divorces of wealthy couples when a husband or wife thinks they can claim a greater share due to their special talents.
Sir Chris, 48, came to Britain with his family as a young child. He went to state school, and took a first-class business degree at Southampton University. He worked for an accountancy firm and then took another degree at Harvard. His wife, who is 49, grew up in Chicago and met her husband at Harvard in 1994.
The couple, who had homes in London, Connecticut and Jamaica together worth around £17million, began their fight over the fortune when their marriage broke down in 2012.
Jane Keir, a partner in law firm Kingsley Napley, said the judgment ‘opens the door for divorce lawyers to argue for bespoke divorce solutions which protect genius wealth.’
