Baron Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knig ...

Nils Taube (25 July 1928 – 11 March 2008) was Britain's longest serving fund manager. A colleague of

George Soros George Soros ( name written in eastern order), (born György Schwartz, August 12, 1930) is a Hungarian-American businessman and philanthropist. , he had a net worth of US$8.6 billion, Note that this site is updated daily. having donated mo ...

and advisor to

Lord Rothschild Baron Rothschild, of Tring in the County of Hertfordshire, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1885 for Sir Nathan Rothschild, 2nd Baronet, a member of the Rothschild banking family. He was the first Jewish mem ...

, he also anticipated the 1987 stockmarket crash, while delivering an annual return of 15 percent for over 35 years while he ran his own fund.

Biography

Nils Otto von Taube was born on 25 July 1928 to Valerie Olga Doreen Girard de Soucanton (born 1904), who was daughter of William Girard de Soucanton, the Honorary British consul in

Reval Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ''m ...

, owner of trading company Thomas Clayhills and Son and Beatrice Carr, and an upper-class Baltic German Swedish father Baron Axel von Taube (1901-1945), a member of baronial Taube af Karlö introduced at the House of Knights in Stockholm, his family were resettled to

Reichsgau Wartheland The ''Reichsgau Wartheland'' (initially ''Reichsgau Posen'', also: ''Warthegau'') was a Nazi German ''Reichsgau'' formed from parts of Polish territory annexed in 1939 during World War II. It comprised the region of Greater Poland and adjacent a ...

in 1939 as part of the secret protocols of the

Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact , long_name = Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , image = Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H27337, Moskau, Stalin und Ribbentrop im Kreml.jpg , image_width = 200 , caption = Stalin and Ribbentrop shaking ...

requiring the resettlement of ethnic Germans from Estonia and Latvia. Taube moved to London in 1946 to study Chemistry, but with family to support he left for the City in 1948, joining Kitcat & Aitken as an office junior. He made his name investing in then-undervalued German shares and rose rapidly through the ranks, becoming an analyst in 1951, fund manager in 1969 and senior partner in 1975. Taube's main fund was the St James's Place Greater European Progressive fund, which returned an average of 15.74% a year between 1969 and 2006. He also ran the St James's Place International Unit Trust, which grew an average of 15.23% a year between 1971 and 2006. In the 1970s, he worked with George Soros, helping him to make money by introducing him to the gilts market. Soros was so impressed that he invited Taube on to the advisory board of the

Quantum Group In mathematics and theoretical physics, the term quantum group denotes one of a few different kinds of noncommutative algebras with additional structure. These include Drinfeld–Jimbo type quantum groups (which are quasitriangular Hopf algebras) ...

of hedge funds. When in 1982, Jacob Rothschild's RIT and Northern bought a stake in Kitkat & Aitken it was said that the deal was devised to gain access to Taube, who became Rothschild's principal investment manager, a position he held until 1996. That year he left to establish Taube Hodson Stonex Partners, building up assets of £9 billion. In 2006 he started Nils Taube Investments, where he worked until his death. After the collapse of Communism, Taube became involved in charitable and advisory work for his native country. He helped run the Soros Open Estonia Foundation, became an adviser to an Estonian cabinet committee overseeing state investment, and was a member of the prime minister's research and development council. His charitable work, for which he was honoured by Estonia in 1998, included paying for a cancer research laboratory at Tartu University and the funding of physics research. In 1969, Taube was one of the four founders of the

Institute for Fiscal Studies The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) is an economic research institute based in London, United Kingdom, which specialises in UK taxation and public policy. It produces both academic and policy-related findings. The institute's aim is to "a ...

. Taube put his success down to caution, joking that "we only invest in countries where they wear overcoats in the winter". In recent months he had been buying gold and energy stocks, blaming the current market turmoil on the "mass stupidity" of "smartypants investors" who had been labouring under the delusion that it is possible to "buy listed companies and gear them up 10 times". When asked recently if he was predicting a crash he replied: "I can't say I'm not" - and he described the present crisis as being "a cross between 1987 and the early 70s, when the market disintegrated". After Estonia regained independence, he was a member of the Estonian prime minister's research and development council, advisor to an Estonian cabinet committee overseeing state investments and helped run the Soros Open Estonia Foundation. He funded a cancer research laboratory at

Tartu University The University of Tartu (UT; et, Tartu Ülikool; la, Universitas Tartuensis) is a university in the city of Tartu in Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is the only classical university in the country, and also its biggest ...

Personal life

Taube is survived by his wife, Idonea, born Tudor, daughter of Lt.-Col. Owen Frederick Morton Tudor and Hon. Noreen Rosamund Anne Tufton, Idonea is a granddaughter of admiral Henry Morton Tudor and John Sackville Richard Tufton, 2nd

Baron Hothfield Baron Hothfield, of Hothfield in the County of Kent, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1881 for Sir Henry Tufton, 2nd Baronet, who was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Westmorland the same year and who also served br ...

of Hothfield and his wife Lady Ierne Louisa Arundel

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

.The Peerage
/ref> She married Baron Nils Taube on 19 January 1954 and they have three sons.

Death

Taube died of a stroke on 11 March 2008 in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, at the age of 79.

References

External links

Telegraph article on Nils TaubeTimes Online Obituaries
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taube, Nils Estonian businesspeople 20th-century British businesspeople Estonian World War II refugees 1928 births 2008 deaths Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana, 3rd Class