Billionaire Louis Bacon is reportedly backing a hedge fund manager he once called ‘the most impressive trader I’ve ever seen’

Coffey retired from the industry in 2012 at the age of 41, saying at the time that he intended to spend more time with family in his native Australia. He previously worked at GLG Partners and Moore Capital, where he ran two emerging markets funds.

While Bacon is backing Coffey, his investment performance at Moore “failed to live up to the stellar returns he delivered at rival manager GLG Partners, where he built his reputation and earned himself hundreds of millions of dollars by outperforming both the markets and other hedge funds in the heady bull market of 2005 to 2007,” the Financial News report said.

Coffey’s new fund, with offices in London and New York, is shaping up to be one of the largest this year. Business Insider earlier reported the fund’s hires:

• Bob Price, previously global operations head at GLG Partners, as chief operating officer;
• Stuart Atkinson, previously of Moore Capital and GLG, who is heading risk;
• and James Saltissi, who will be head of execution.

Coffey had backed Saltissi’s fund, Abbeville Partners, named after an area in London where Saltissi and Coffey used to live. Abbeville filed to change its name to Kirkoswald Capital Partners at UK Companies House on January 30, and with a UK regulator on January 31.

A spokesperson for Bacon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Coffey declined to comment.