Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

The business on...Nat Rothschild, Financier, Vallar

Alistair Dawber
Saturday 26 June 2010 00:00 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Why is he in the news?

The Honourable Nathaniel Philip Victor James Rothschild, entrepreneur and scion of the famous banking family, said yesterday that he was preparing to float his latest venture, Vallar, which is expected to invest up to £5bn in the mining industry.

Mining? Whatever happened to banking?

Nat was co-chairman of the hedge fund Atticus, which sadly closed its flagship fund last year after running into trouble during the financial crisis. But he has already dabbled in the resources industry, having been on the advisory board of the world's biggest gold miner, Barrick, for the past few years. He is also good mates with Oleg Deripaska.

Oleg Deripaska? I've heard that name before.

Ah, yes. Mr Deripaska caused something of a stir in Britan in 2008 when the Tories attempted to make a bit of political capital out of the fact that Lord Mandelson had stayed on the Russian oligarch's yacht and attended a party thrown by Nat in Corfu. It somewhat backfired when Nat wrote to a newspaper saying that George Osborne, now the Chancellor, had asked Mr Deripaska for a donation to Tory Party coffers during the bash.

We thought Nat and George were best mates...

They used to be. Indeed, they go back as far as prep school and there's probably a closely-guarded Bullingdon Club photo of the pair of them somewhere from their days at Oxford. They go back so far, in fact, that Nat probably knows the Chancellor as Gideon.

So he's well connected, then, young Nat?

Indeed he is. As well as Osborne and Lord Mandelson, it is thought he is also on first name terms with a host of politicians and members of the glitterati. He is even chums with Saif al-Islam Muammar al-Gaddafi, the son of the Libyan dictator. But he also knows a few people in the mining industry and has managed to recruit a former Anglo American executive, James Campbell, to help run Vallar.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in