Morning Coffee: Hedge fund divorce dramas. When your father is a private equity guy

How much do the wives of successful hedge fund managers contribute to their success? And how much are the wives of successful hedge fund managers owed when the marriage fails? 

John Overdeck, the mathematical mind behind quant hedge fund Two Sigma, is in the throes of a divorce from Laura Overdeck, his wife of 20 years. Laura is a Princeton astrophysicist, author, and mother of his three children. Laura filed for divorce four years ago, reportedly citing irreconcilable differences, and she wants $6.2bn. John says she can have slightly more than a tenth of that.  

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The Overdecks are in court over this discrepancy and Bloomberg reported on the proceedings, which commenced yesterday. John is offering Laura $723m, tax-free, which sounds like a really fine amount and is more than $685m that John's lawyer says he actually earned over their marriage and paid into their joint account. It is also "more than enough to meet the needs of the parties’ marital lifestyle,” John's lawyer adds. 

Laura disagrees. She thinks John is trying to pay her the minimum possible and claims he spent long years “methodically and strategically" plotting to do so. “John Overdeck is not a man who woke up one morning and decided to divorce his wife,” Laura's lawyer declared yesterday. Laura has already accused John's estate lawyers, and some Two Sigma employees of diverting assets into trusts he controls. 

The case underscores both the financial complexity of being a hedge fund billionaire, and the role of a woman in facilitating this situation. 

Although John Overdeck 'only' earned $685m over two decades of his marriage, he also spent that time building Two Sigma from a hedge fund that had $1bn in assets in 2001 to a hedge fund that has $80bn in assets now. Laura says she is owed 35% of its value (and that this is worth $6.2bn). John says she is not, and that a lot of work had gone into building Two Sigma's systems before they were even married. Laura's lawyer says Two Sigma only began trading after they were married and that prior to that it was merely a “concept of a notion of a company."

Laura Overdeck herself once worked in the hedge fund industry. After leaving Princeton and gaining an MBA from Wharton, she worked for DE Shaw. Since marrying John, though, Laura has been busy with the $920m Overdeck family foundation and children's books. Laura also wants to be granted control of this foundation (or given a chunk of its money to give to a charity of her own choice). For the moment, she appears to have been deleted from the leadership team page, which only includes John Overdeck, Daniel Overdeck (his brother) and a woman called Anu Malipatil who briefly worked for Two Sigma in the distant past.

The drama continues.

Separately, if you are the 32-year-old son of a 68-year-old vegan private equity billionaire in London, then you can have a private equity fund of your own.

Financial News reports that John Coller, the son of Jeremy Coller, has got one and that it has an office opposite his father's firm, Coller Capital, in Mayfair. John's fund is called Kivuko Capital and it serves "relentless founders."

John is a philosopher. He has also spent two years at McKinsey & Co. and three years on the graduate program of Heinz. His father is not involved in his new firm. 

Meanwhile...

Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio had a wild night until 4am at a nightclub for his 77th birthday. Was it the club that describes itself thus? "Reality warps beyond all recognition as you blast off through a technicoloured wormhole and Enter The WORTEX, a gateway to escape the routine and explore a parallel world where madness is the only rule." (Business Insider)  

AI company Hebbia receives 6,000 applications a month, mostly from bankers. It only employs 200 people. "I work a lot, but I'm never scared at 6 p.m. on a Friday that something is going to blow up and destroy my weekend. I think I could probably end work every day three hours earlier if I wanted to. But because we're growing really fast, there are just cool opportunities everywhere." (Business Insider)  

Situational Awareness tried to increase its roster of prime brokers in order to increase its leverage even further. Barclays was approached, but declined. (IFR)

Dymon Asia is hiring in London and appointed Stuart Wilson from Eisler as its COO. (Financial News) 

Banking jobs are leaving London and going to Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham. (Bloomberg) 

Crypto firm Bitwise cut 14% of its people. (Bloomberg) 

Goldman Sachs is paying $2.25bn to acquire NEOS Investments, a provider of actively managed exchange-traded funds with $30 billion in assets. NEOS specialises in a new class of ETFs that use options to maximize regular payouts and limit tax bills. They are known as boomer candy. (WSJ)  

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