Morning Coffee: Intense, workaholic HSBC banker prioritised family & soccer. Indomitable ebullience of private equity guys

Who knew? While Greg Guyett's disinclination to do the bidding of his HSBC bosses and move to Hong Kong during the pandemic is common knowledge, it turns out that Mark Tucker, his workaholic boss, had other priorities too. 

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As flagged by Sky News in November, Tucker is leaving HSBC. His time there has been characterised by descriptors more appropriate to bull than banker: "hard-charging", "ruthless" and "intense", Tucker is the alpha epitome.

As is the case with such bull-men, Tucker is given to issuing missives at 2am, conducting humiliating interviews and firing people he hired not so long before. He's also smart and personable and managed to cohere HSBC in difficult global waters when Ping An, its largest shareholder, wanted the business split geographically. But as the Financial Times noted last year, his performance 'scorecard is mixed.' 

Tucker is now 67 and might want to sleep more than four hours a night. Either way, he's been chairman for eight years and the role carries a maximum term of nine years, so an exit was inevitable. As Tucker moves on, though, other less bovine elements of his personality are being aired. The Wall Street Journal says HSBC was never his priority anyway, and that Tucker has told associates that HSBC comes "third behind family and soccer." The Times claimed a few years ago that Tucker is shy and avoids Davos. He doesn't eat meat. He doesn't wear a tie. He's an "informal person" who's had "health concerns" in the past. 

Tucker, who once played professionally himself and who reportedly inherited his enthusiasm for football from his "big fella" father, will now be able to indulge in his passion for watching Chelsea without HSBC to intervene. He'll also be able to hang out with his wife, Janet, and his grown son and daughter. It's a reminder that even if you're charging around intensely at work, it's good to have other things going on, although in Tucker's case it seems that HSBC's predominance in his life may have been greater than he has cared to admit.

Separately, KKR co-chief executive Scott Nuttall is a fine exemplar of resilient optimism in the face of adversity. 

“These periods always end," said Nuttall yesterday of the tribulations of the tariff-times. "We typically look back and wish we had invested more when the world is most uncertain."

With this in mind, Nuttall said KKR has invested $10bn since the tariffs were implemented. However, KKR also just registered its first quarterly loss since 2022 as the insurance-related investments in its fixed income portfolio were marked-to-market. This may simply be an accounting issue, but it comes as questions are raised over the valuation of private market investments without similar marks. Have these quietly fallen too? If they have, Nuttall is not concerned. KKR is investing accordingly.

Meanwhile... 

HSBC traditionally appointed insiders to do Tucker's chairman role. He was a break from that tradition when he joined in 2017. (Bloomberg) 

Citi hired Robert Lighthizer, who helped lead Trump’s trade policy during his first administration from 2017 to 2021, as a part-time senior adviser. (Bloomberg) 

Citadel's flagship fund was up 1.3% last month and Ken Griffin is saying things like: “An opinion without a position is still just an opinion. This is a job that each and every day you have to act with conviction. You need to lay it on the line and translate your opinion into a position.” (WSJ) 

ExodusPoint has returned 6.4% year-to-date. Millennium has lost 1.35%. (Bloomberg) 

Yau Chung Ng in Singapore and Alex Blanchard in Dubai are leaving Millennium. (Bloomberg) 

As Citadel Securities pushes into corporate bond trading, it would like to end the situation whereby the banks issuing corporate bonds get favourable treatment when it comes to trading them. (IFR) 

Retired UBS banker Clive Standish gave his wife £80m to avoid inheritance tax and now that he's divorcing her he wants it back. (The Times) 

If you put a red light mask on your hair, it will become lustrous. (WSJ) 

Reasons not to move to the UAE: the hottest April on record, with an average daily maximum temperature of 42.6C (109F). (Bloomberg) 

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