Exactly how big Specsavers can get remains an open question. Australian boss Peter Larsen acknowledged late last year that the store rollout was slowing, but said the company would still like to get to around 300 stores by the end of 2011.
One of his largest investments, in London-listed miner African Minerals, has climbed almost 70% in the last 12 months in which he has stake worth about $350 million.
The firm has offices in New York, Washington DC and London.
Hintze personally manages the firm's largest fund, the $US1.3bn Directional Opportunities Fund, which won the Fund of the Year award. It is an opportunistic fund that invests across all asset classes. In 2008 it was down 5 per cent, in 2009 up 56.2 per cent, up 31.4 per cent last year and this year it was up 4.7 per cent by the end of last month. The Eurohedge judges called the fund "one of the very best performers in the industry since its inception in 2005", adding it had "exhibited exactly the kind of performance that investors were looking for in 2010, but which only very few managers were really able to provide".
Moore Capital Management Appoints Greg Coffey
Moore Capital Management Appoints Greg Coffey
I didn’t know that it would turn into a hedge fund, but when I started to raise money for a hedge fund, he was a big supporter with his investors.