Top Money Maker Earned $95 Million, Magazine Says

NEW YORK — Despite the recession and slump on Wall Street in 1990, profits cascaded in for some investors, fund managers and traders, with the top 20 money makers earning $20 million to $95 million, Financial World magazine reported.

Some of the biggest earners reaped their profits from surging oil and currency prices. But one transaction, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.’s $1.34-billion sale of Beatrice Cos. to ConAgra Inc., helped five businessmen place in the top 20, the magazine said in its July 9 issue.

Leading the list was Bruce Kovner, a futures and currency trader at Caxton Corp. who earned upward of $95 million. Financial World said Kovner manages about $1.2 billion in assets for his investors, who received a return of more than 30% in 1990.

Behind Kovner, with earnings of at least $90 million each, were cousins Henry Kravis and George Roberts, founding partners of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. The pair profited handsomely from several big deals last year, including the sale of Beatrice and a public offering of stock in Safeway Inc.

Another Kohlberg Kravis partner, Robert MacDonnell, earned at least $70 million, while Jerome Kohlberg, a former partner in the firm, earned $60 million from deals including the Beatrice sale, Financial World said.

And Donald Kelly, who sold his company, Esmark Inc., to Beatrice in the mid-1980s and later helped Kohlberg Kravis break up the conglomerate, earned $67.6 million from last year’s sale of the company to ConAgra.

Investor Irwin A. Jacobs earned $75 million last year, partly from sales of stock in Avon Products Inc. and First Bank System.

Paul Tudor Jones II made at least $70 million from playing the oil, currency and other markets. His strategy nearly doubled the assets of his firm, Tudor Investments.

Fund manager George Soros earned at least $60 million, largely from his Quantum Fund.

Michel David-Weill, head of the French investment firm Lazard, earned $55 million to complete the Financial World Top 10. His take included about $20 million from the company’s U.S. arm, Lazard Freres.

Michael Steinhardt, of the fund manager Steinhardt Partners, earned $50 million, largely from Treasury securities and stock sales.

John Weinberg, who retired last year as chairman of Goldman, Sachs & Co., took $35 million in earnings with him.

Leveraged buyout specialist Theodore Forstmann earned at least $30 million from his firm, Forstmann Little & Co.

Another fund manager, Julian Robertson of Tiger Management, earned at least $25 million, while money manager George Weiss of George Weiss Associates also earned at least $25 million.

Salomon Bros. trader Lawrence Hilibrand earned $23 million, largely in bonuses for profits he racked up for the investment firm’s bond-arbitrage group.

Investor and fund manager James Chanos of Kynikos Associates earned at least $20 million, and Martin Dubilier of the LBO firm Clayton & Dubilier Inc. made $20 million.

Rounding out the list were oil trader Andrew Hall, the president of Salomon’s Phibro Energy subsidiary, and Texas investor Richard Rainwater. Both earned $20 million.