The Harvard Management Company, under the interim
leadership of Robert Kaplan, is looking for a permanent replacement for
the departing
Mohamed El-Erian. In the meantime, it’s taking a 12.5% stake in Gávea,
the hedge fund run by former Soros fund manager and Brazilian central banker
Armínio Fraga. (I can’t find an English-language report on this, but
one in Portugese.)
I believe that HMC has been an investor in Fraga’s fund for some time, but
this investment clearly brings the two institutions much closer together. My
guess is that HMC asked Fraga if he’d be interested in taking over from El-Erian
(Fraga would be a magnificent replacement), and Fraga said he wasn’t interested
in leaving Rio and moving to Boston (which is entirely understandable). But
talks were friendly enough that the strategic 12.5% investment ended up being
negotiated instead.
Of course, this is all utter speculation. But what else are blogs for?