Boris Johnson made Aussie billionaire a Lord on his way out the door

London: Sir Michael Hintze, the former Australian army captain who has become one of Britain’s most successful and best-known hedge fund managers, will take a seat in Britain’s House of Lords.

The billionaire, who has donated more than £4.7 million ($8.4 million) to the ruling Conservative Party over a decade, was among the latest set of political peerages announced by the UK government.

Michael Hintze, pictured in front of Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery.Credit:Ian Tuttle

The list was among the last acts signed off from former prime minister Boris Johnson and approved by King Charles III.

The Truss government statement announcing the peerage cited the Australian as a “businessman, founder of the Hintze Family Charitable Foundation and trustee of the National Gallery”.

Hintze, 69, gave £100,000 to Vote Leave, the official Brexit campaign, co-founded by Dominic Cummings and Matthew Elliott, and supported by Johnson. The successful vote for Britain to leave Europe triggered a sharp fall in the pound and it is widely assumed Hintze profited from the shock result.

He has also backed the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a think tank with a history of making misleading claims about climate change.

His net wealth, according to Australian Financial Review Rich List, is estimated at $2.2 billion, which includes substantial agricultural holdings in Australia.

Relatively media shy, he has repeatedly rejected accusations he is a climate denier.

Other beneficiaries of his success have been galleries, museums, universities and religious institutions that have received more than £65 million in donations from the foundation. The UK’s Natural History Museum named a hall after him following a £5 million donation.

Alexander Downer, Australia’s former foreign minister and high commissioner to London from 2014 to 2018, has described Hintze as a “brilliant mind” who “will go down in history as one of the great benefactors”.

Peerages have become increasingly controversial within British politics, drawing accusations of cronyism as many recipients are donors and political allies.

Historically, most Lords were hereditary peers, with a small number of other peers appointed to the house for life. A change in legislation in 1958 provided for the creation of more life peers, which also gave the prime minister the power to bring non-elected individuals into the government.

Both the government and the opposition can make appointments to the House of Lords. All nominated peers must go through a standard appointment process. To be eligible, a nominee must be a British, Irish or Commonwealth citizen, and must normally reside in the United Kingdom – including for tax purposes.

Like the Australian Senate, the House of Lords is the second chamber of the UK parliament. It works alongside the House of Commons to check laws, challenge the actions of the government and provide a forum for independent expertise. However, unlike the Senate, none of its members are democratically elected.

Born in pre-communist China, Hintze’s family arrived in Australia as stateless refugees after his grandparents fled Russia during the Bolshevik revolution.

Hintze was raised in Sydney by his Russian-speaking mother after his parents’ divorce and he attended St Leo’s Catholic College at Wahroonga. He studied physics and engineering at the University of Sydney before joining the army.

He moved to the United States to work at Salomon Brothers, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse First Boston before establishing CQS in 1999.

The firm’s success, which included Hintze limiting investment losses during the financial crisis before making big gains in the subsequent upturn, helped him to become one of the richest financiers in the UK.

Hintze is a committed Catholic and his donations helped the Vatican restore the Michelangelo frescoes in the Pauline Chapel. He sits on the board of the Vatican Bank.

Only a handful of Australians have sat in the House of Lords, with the first being former prime minister Stanley Bruce, later Viscount Bruce of Melbourne.

Baroness Trixie Gardner of Southgate and Parkes, a former Conservative Party activist and local councillor, was given a peerage in 1981.

Sydney-born Baroness Natalie Bennett of Manor Gate, a former UK Greens leader, was given a peerage in 2019 and is one of only two Greens in the chamber.

Peers are supposed to adopt a place name within Britain as part of their title, but if they are foreign-born they can also add an overseas name. It is not yet clear which place or places Lord Hintze will choose.

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