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One thing to start: Welcome to your special year-end edition of FT Asset Management. We’ve pulled out two themes that dominated in 2025. Where should we focus our coverage next year? Email me: emma.dunkley@ft.com. Have a great break, folks. We will resume service on January 12.
And one audio thing: Fidelity Investments has quietly cemented its status as one of the world’s top financial powerhouses. But what is the secret sauce behind the success of this private company led by Abigail Johnson? We take a deep dive in this episode of Behind the Money, available on your podcast app of choice here.
Warren Buffett announces his retirement
Warren Buffett, dubbed the “Oracle of Omaha” and arguably the world’s most famous investor, announced his retirement this year.
The 94-year-old, who built up the financial juggernaut Berkshire Hathaway over six decades, will pass the baton to Greg Abel at the start of 2026.
The death of Buffett’s longtime friend and business partner Charlie Munger in 2023 had already increased speculation about when Buffett might step down.
Buffett took a further step back when he said in November that he was “going quiet”, noting that Berkshire’s next annual letter, which is widely followed by legions of retail and institutional investors, would be written by someone else.
Abel will certainly face a tricky task leading the company after Buffett. The challenges are twofold: maintain the culture that Buffett and Munger instilled in Berkshire while putting the group’s war chest — now at a record high — to work.
The new guard is now preparing to take over at the conglomerate, but without Todd Combs, one of Buffett’s protégés, who is leaving Berkshire for a new role at JPMorgan Chase.
JPMorgan rejected the notion that Combs could be a candidate to follow the bank’s boss Jamie Dimon, 69, in Wall Street’s highest-profile — and slowest-moving — succession race.
The collapse of First Brands
The high-profile collapses of car parts maker First Brands Group and subprime auto lender Tricolor Holdings within weeks of each other have had knock-on effects this year.
Certain funds with exposure to First Brands took a hit. UBS O’Connor, a private credit and commodities specialist, revealed that one of its investment vehicles was exposed and ended up winding it down.
The Wall Street bank Jefferies was also involved in the saga through its asset management division’s Point Bonita Capital. The investment bank issued an open letter in which top executives said it could withstand any losses it might incur.
The collapse of First Brands, which also drew in the likes of hedge fund Millennium Management, even prompted the US Justice Department to open an investigation.
The aftershocks were felt in Europe as well. In the UK, the financial watchdog noted that it was closely monitoring the collapse to assess if the failed US companies that relied heavily on asset-based lending indicated wider problems in fast-growing private credit markets.
More broadly, the saga led financial stalwarts to sound the alarm on the private debt boom, with Jim Chanos, one of Wall Street’s best-known short sellers, warning that First Brand’s bankruptcy could augur a wave of corporate collapses.
“I suspect we’re going to see more of these things, like First Brands and others, when the cycle ultimately reverses,” Chanos told the Financial Times, “particularly as private credit has put another layer between the actual lenders and the borrowers.”
Some firms appeared to be prescient, though. Private equity firm Apollo arguably spotted the red flags at First Brands ahead of time, and last year began shorting the debt of the car parts firm.
10 of the best stories
Hedge fund Millennium valued at $14bn in minority stake sale talks
London becomes ‘quant’ powerhouse as traders rake in revenues
BlackRock awards Larry Fink carried interest incentive for first time
Hedge funds hit with steepest margin calls since 2020 Covid crisis
Wealthy Americans pour record sums into private credit funds
Donald Trump exposes US retirees to new world of risk with 401k order
Dutch pension funds set to sell €125bn of government bonds
Rachel Reeves to cut cash Isa limit to £12,000 in Budget
Chinese investors privately take stakes in Elon Musk’s companies
BlackRock and Vanguard lead ‘super league’ dominating Europe
10 of our best longer reads
Can Fidelity keep its grip on America’s investments?
The hedge fund billionaire aiming to be king of Queens
Can hedge funds prosper without their star trader founders?
The remarkable redemption of St James’s Place
Can the world’s largest listed hedge fund rebound?
How top hedge funds can pay traders $100mn
Active ETFs: a lifeline for Europe’s struggling asset managers?
BlackRock tried private credit once before. Will this time be better?
How secretive hedge fund Magnetar went all in on AI
World’s best performing sovereign wealth fund bets on Europe over US
And finally
Get into the festive mood at Kew Gardens in London, with a trail displaying creations from world-renowned artists, lighting up Kew’s landscapes. The winter exhibition includes illuminations, shimmering tunnels of light and, of course, Father Christmas.
Selected dates until January 4
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