Rob Luciano ready for a comebackRob Luciano, formerly a fund...

Rob Luciano ready for a comeback

Rob Luciano, formerly a fund manager at VGI Partners, is preparing to re-enter the market. Picture: Britta Campion

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By yoni bashan

8:05PM April 18, 2024

Almost a year after announcing a sabbatical from stock picking, and then bailing out of funds management altogether, Rob Luciano, founder of hedge fund VGI Partners and one of the most talked about characters in finance, appears to be suiting up for atmospheric re-entry to the market.

How else to explain the sudden registration of two businesses – RML Partnership and Rosca Capital Management – and the word getting around town that Luciano is weighing a plan to manage money again for the billionaire set. It’s what he did for the reclusive Angela Bennett and the late David Hains.

Is that why he’s telling pals he’s off to London and Switzerland later this month? We just know Luciano’s former lieutenant Doug Tynan will be among the many reading of these developments with at least a passing interest. Tynan was hired as a 24-year-old accountant out of Brisbane at VGI but left in 2021 to start GCQ Funds Management – and you best believe there’s plenty of crossover contacts between them.

Doug Tynan worked for VGI Partners but struck out with his own business in 2021.

Doug Tynan worked for VGI Partners but struck out with his own business in 2021.

Look, maybe we’re mistaken and Luciano’s real plan is to manage his own money. He’s got a chest full of treasure since the merging of VGI with Regal in 2022, giving him a 16 per cent holding after all was said and done. Regal’s market cap was in the ballpark of $875m at the time; today it’s just shy of $700m, enough to seed fund a new kid on the management block, if that’s where this is heading.

Margin Call asked Luciano directly and he was all praise for Regal. “I am a very happy Regal Partners shareholder and think (founder) Phil (King), (CEO) Brendan (O’Connor) and the team are doing a terrific job growing the business into Australia’s leading alternative asset management platform,” he said.

And the newly registered business names? It seems to be mostly personal – for the moment. “I have started to manage money again for my family as I love investing, and will continue to assess other opportunities.”

Wayward Wiki

Meanwhile, some developments with Luciano’s infamous Wikipedia page and a substantial facelift that it’s undergone over the past week – for the second time, no less. Unflattering paragraphs went missing last year only to faithfully resurface; the person responsible for removing them was later pinpointed as a well-intentioned ally of the former hedge fund manager. And yes, the incident was added to the page, of course.

Well, this time it looks like the tweaking was conducted by a seasoned Wiki moderator who’s gone about removing much of the snark levelled at Luciano and VGI Partners. This all having been posted by someone who, shall we say, may not have had his best interests at heart.

A look at the page now provides a much earlier (and far shorter) version of Luciano’s biography and personal life which, even in its sanitised state, is still a bit bruising in parts. One claim that resisted editing includes a suggestion that he installed a panic room in his office (he said it was a soundproofed meeting space); gone, however, is the reference to a tree-lopping incident from way back in 2021.

Interesting, too, that one anonymous user involved in all this malarkey, 28Blake2029, has not only had their editing privileges blocked but that the mod left a note rebuking them, which apparently isn’t common. The note said: “You’re obviously blocked, you and by now three other accounts, but I just want to leave a record of just how bad and improper your editing is.”

And for just a taste of how brutal this game can become, the name 28Blake2029 is apparently a reference to the street address of Luciano’s deceased parents.