He spends most of his time in his home in England and helping fellow Hungarians and other Eastern Europeans reacquaint themselves with capitalism. To bankroll that effort, he created the Open Society Fund in 1979 and the Soros Foundation-Hungary in 1984. Known as "an alternate ministry of culture," the foundation helped establish a management training center in an old castle outside Budapest.



Now there are foundations in 10 Central and Eastern European countries aimed at cultural and economic revitalization. Soros, 59, is the author of The Alchemy of Finance, published in 1987, in which he outlines, somewhat circuitously, his "theory of reflexivity," which holds that perceptions change events which in turn, change perceptions.

This is not his first attempt at writing. Soros did extensive work several years earlier on a philosophical book that was never completed. His new book, Opening the Soviet System, is due out this month.

Financial World

The Wall Street 100

By Stephen Taub and David Carey with Alison M. Smith

July 21, 1992

Page 40

No. 1 GEORGE SOROS

Soros Fund Management

At least $117 million

Despite the fact that Hungarian-born George Soros spends much of his time these days touting capitalism in former East Bloc countries, he was still able to find a way for his $3.2 billion offshore Quantum fund, which rose around 63%, to outperform most managed porfolios and market indexes.

Who says bigger can't also perform better? After he claimed a chunk of Quantum's 15% incentive fee and the fund's entire 1% management fee, Soros's personal take computed into 9 figures. Not too shabby, considering how much time the 61-year-old globe-trotter spends away from home. One of his more recent pet projects has been the establishment of the Central European University in Budapest and Prague. In the past year or so, he still found time to launch three spin-off funds - Quasar International Partners, Quantum Emerging Growth and Quota.

Financial World

The Wall Street 100

By Stephen Taub, Nanette Byrnes, and David Carey

July 6, 1993

Page 40

No. 1 GEORGE SOROS

Soros Fund Management

At least $650 million

How do you make $650 million in one year if you are not Mike Milken? Simple. First, start the year with about $800 million of your own money and other $4 billion of other peoples'.That is nearly $5 billion in all under management. Then hire crack managers and traders who rack huge returns trafficking highly volatile currencies and derivatives instruments. Finally, charge hefty management and incentive fees. Result: Last year 62-year-old George Soros's Quantum Fund was up 68.1% after fees; Quantum Emerging, up 57%; Quasar International, 55.7%; and Quota, 37.4%. Quantum and Quasar charge 1% management fees and 15% of the appreciation while the other two funds charge 1% plus 20%.

Moreover, Soros invests a big portion of his assets in currencies and index-linked derivatives but never for long. He flits in and out of these instruments incessantly, rarely holding a position for more than a few days. As a result, he realizes capital gains on the vast bulk of the nominal returns he generates in a given year. Do the arithmetic and you'll see that at a bare minimum, Soros extracted more than $400 million in profits from his personal hoard.

A conservative estimate of his share of his firm's incentive fees tacks on another $200 million or so to the total. Finally, Soros awards himself all his firms management fees, which netted him about $50 million. Presto: $650 million, although his take might have been much higher. Today, Soros's clutch of five offshore funds boats assets well over $7 billion, including a $525 million real estate fund he recently formed in partnership with Paul Reichmann, a former controlling shareholder with bankrupt Canadian real estate developer Olympia & York.

This is not to be mistaken for Soros's new $775 million partnership with British Land to invest in properties.