HOWZAT

Coffey’s funds became vital for GLG: last year he produced about 60% of the group’s performance fees despite being in charge of only a third of the funds under management.

When GLG listed in New York last year, it was Coffey, rather than the firm’s more senior directors including Pierre Lagrange and Noam Gottesman, who was ushered centre stage at the exchange to ring the opening bell.

And, tellingly, when news of his threatened resignation began to emerge 10 days ago, GLG’s share price fell by more than 15%. One analyst has predicted that $4.5 billion could be withdrawn from Coffey’s funds at GLG over the next few quarters. GLG prospered with Coffey in its ranks. Now, the firm has seen the price of losing him.

THOSE who know Coffey could easily spot that the holiday in Verbier was unusual. Something was afoot.

He has no shortage of holiday homes to choose from. He and his wife — described as “super bright” by acquaintances — have a house in London where they live with their children, aged three and five. Coffey also has a farm in the Home Counties, a chalet in Verbier and two beachfront mansions in Sydney.

So what was different about the recent trip to Switzerland? For the first time that anyone can remember, Coffey left his work at home. For previous “holidays” — if that is the word — he would have a trunk of screens and keyboards sent ahead to wherever he and the family were staying. The hardware would be set up to allow him to continue trading while his wife and children slept.

Even during an annual two-month escape to Australia in November and December, Coffey would continue to work. “The houses in Australia are completely wired into the office in London,” said another friend. “These trips wouldn’t qualify as a holiday.”

However, for last month’s trip to Switzerland, the trunk stayed at home. The Verbier holiday marked the first time in years that Coffey had allowed himself to take his eyes off the financial markets. One friend who joined the skiing party said he couldn’t believe his ears when Coffey asked him what the markets were doing. “I had always assumed that Greg would know — wherever he was,” said the friend.

Coffey works 20-hour days when necessary. However, his admirers concede that it is more than hard work that has made him successful. One investor pointed to Coffey’s “strong sense of risk control” and a lack of ego in the way he reacts to the markets’ moves.

The French financier Arki Busson added: “He has confidence in his ideas but doubt in the outcome and that is what makes him special.”

WALKING AWAY from $250m at GLG certainly makes him special, but then Coffey has never conformed. While his peers revelled in the stereotypical hedge-fund lifestyle of flash cars and charity bashes, he settled down with Brzezinski in his twenties after the couple met in Sydney when Coffey was a young trader at Macquarie.

Since the arrival of their first child, Coffey’s life has been devoted to his work and his family. One of his close business acquaintances in London said that he had managed to have dinner with Coffey no more than five times in the past decade. Apart from skiing, Coffey apparently has no interests outside work and family. His huge success and wealth appear not to have affected him. “A nice, self-deprecating, laconic guy,” said one acquaintance.