LGT Capital Partners

LGT Capital Partners, the fund-of-funds business owned by the family of the Princely House of Liechtenstein, was the beneficiary of a streamlining strategy in the late 1990s. LGT Group sold is mutual fund business, LGT Chancellor, in 1998, to focus on its private banking business, LGT Bank, in Liechtenstein, and began building its alternatives business with the more than $1 billion in liquid assets the firm suddenly had available. Thomas Weber, who had an interest in hedge funds, is credited with pushing to launch LGT Capital Partners. Weber persuaded LGT Group to found an investment firm and a fund of hedge funds, Castle Alternative Invest, which was listed on the Zurich Stock Exchange in 1996, the second fund of funds ever to list in Europe, to solicit funds from institutional investors. The fund, which was later listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2009, earned 12.95 percent in its first year…