Investor found hanged after losing £180m

A HEDGE fund manager was found hanged after becoming “extremely stressed” when the pandemic wiped £180million off the value of his equity fund, an inquest heard.

Guy Rushton was found in a barn near his £3.5million house less than two weeks after he was discharged from a psychiatric hospital.

The £292million hedge fund he managed had lost around £180million in value due to the effect of pandemic on the stock market, according to reports.

His wife told an inquest that as a result he was feeling “uncertain about the future” and “extremely stressed”.

Mr Rushton, 36, worked at Londonbased asset management firm Polar Capital and was the sole manager of his UK Absolute Equity Fund.

The company announced in April 2020 that he was unwell and his fund, launched in 2014 when he joined the firm, would be wound up.

At the start of last year, he and his wife Alannah, to whom he had been married for five years, bought a £3.5million manor in the Wiltshire village of Alvediston, which came with 130 acres of land.

He was found dead by police after being classified as missing on May 20.

In a statement to the inquest, Mrs Rushton said her husband “experienced high stress due to a number of factors”, including being the sole manager of the fund and unable to take days off. He had also found out he had raised blood pressure in October 2019.

She said Covid-19 made him feel “anxious about the value of his own money invested in the fund”, and said she was due to give birth in March 2020, which made him even more worried. She said: “Moving up to that period he was extremely stressed and not sleeping.”

He was prescribed antidepressants, but tried to take his own life in April 2020. He admitted himself to Green Lane psychiatric hospital, Wilts, on May 5 but was discharged six days later.

The day before he died, he transferred a “significant amount of money” to his wife’s account.

Ian Singleton, Wiltshire and Swindon assistant coroner, adjourned the inquest.