One of London’s most successful multi-millionaire hedge fund managers has been named as a key investor in an alternative Heathrow expansion plan that avoids building a new runway.
Anthony Clake, 36, one of the founders of Marshall Wace, is believed to hold 75% of the shares in the company behind the Heathrow Hub scheme, The Times reported.
The Heathrow Hub plan aims to extend one of the runways, enabling the airport to expand at a fraction of the cost and disruption of building a third runway.
Retired Concorde pilot Jock Lowe has been fronting the Heathrow Hub plan. Clake is said to have been an investor in Heathrow Hub since 2013.
Heathrow Hub hopes to make money by licensing its plans for the airport’s expansion.
Clake told Sky News: “I have been delighted to support this important project, which has brought some creative thinking to solving this vital national infrastructure problem.
“I am a believer in responsible capitalism and will therefore donate any after-tax profits to youth and environmental charities in the London and Heathrow areas.”
He is believed to have increased his stake in Heathrow Hub on three occasions in the past three years, which some believe has been a bet on successive governments blocking the third runway plan of Heathrow.
A spokesman for Heathrow Hub said Clake had had the enterprise and vision to back the project early.
A delayed decision by the government on expansion of airport capacity in the south-east is not expected until October at the earliest.
New foreign secretary Boris Johnson is opposed to any Heathrow expansion and London mayor Sadiq Khan favours building a second runway at Gatwick.