Theleme Partners
 Thélème Partners LLP(Hedge fund)     | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Founder | • Patrick Degorce • Peter Davies • Stuart Roden • Rishi Sunak |
| Private investment partnership including later British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Both he and his former "partners" made heaps of money thanks to him becoming Chancellor of the Exchequer during Covid. | |
Theleme Partners is a private investment partnership based in London.[1]
Thélème Partners LLP was founded in August 2009 by Patrick Degorce. Co-founders were Peter Davies, Stuart Roden and Rishi Sunak, who later became British Chancellor of the Exchequer and Prime Minister. Both he and his former "partners" made heaps of money thanks to him becoming Chancellor of the Exchequer during Covid.
What's in a name?
The name probably derives from the fictional Abbey of Thélème in the works of French renaissance writer Rabelais – a utopia with no rules in which inhabitants behaved virtuously since there were no constraints leading them to desire pleasures they had been denied.
In what is "perhaps a coincidence, but an intriguing one nonetheless", Thelema is also the occult spiritual philosophy and new religious movement founded in the early 1900s by Aleister Crowley.
In fund management terms, Theleme could translate to an "unconstrained" management style in which investments are targeted on their own merits, and fund benchmarks are ignored, in an effort to avoid falling into market traps.[2]
Sunak, Thélème and Moderna
In 2009, Rishi Sunak co-founded Thélème Partners LLP. He worked at Thélème from 2009 until 2013 when he left to enter politics.[3]
Thélème Partners LLP invested $500 million in Moderna. In November 2020, as soon as Moderna announced its Covid jab "could be up to 94.5 per cent effective," the UK government immediately did a deal to buy five million doses. Sunak was Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time.[4] As of 2022, the market value of Theleme’s shareholding, at $915 million, made it the 6th top institutional investor in Moderna.[5]
Thélème Partners is owned 75% or more by Theleme Services Ltd, which again is controlled by the Frenchman Patrick Degorce.[6] In 2011, Degorce was one of the earliest investors in Moderna, when Moderna only had about ten employees and a market value of around $125 million.[7]
Theleme adviser
| Sunak co-founded Thélème Partners LLP |
As Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak appointed Theleme partner John Sheridan as an adviser during the COVID-19/Pandemic.[8]
References
- ↑ "Theleme Partners is a private investment partnership based in London"
- ↑ "Hedgie Degorce calls up old friends to set up a fund at Lansdowne’s offices"
- ↑ "7 FACTS ABOUT RISHI SUNAK, THE UK'S NEW PRIME MINISTER"
- ↑ "Biography – Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister on 25 October 2022
- ↑ "Rishi Sunak, Thélème and Moderna"
- ↑ "THELEME PARTNERS LLP"
- ↑ "The Millionaire Who Gave Moderna a Shot"
- ↑ "Rishi Sunak Personally PROFITEERED from Moderna Vaccine"
