A IMGlobalWealth.news Report
Luxembourg has gained another senior private-equity executive from London, adding to signs that European financial centres are competing more aggressively for the people who manage global capital.
James Pitt, a partner at Lexington Partners, has relocated from London to Luxembourg after stepping down as a member of the firm’s UK partnership at the end of August. Pitt, 60, remains an active Lexington partner and is now based in the Grand Duchy.
He joined Lexington in 2006 and focuses on non-US equity co-investments. The firm, owned by Franklin Templeton, manages around $84 billion.
Lexington Partners is one of the world’s largest and longest-established specialists in private-equity secondaries and co-investments. Founded in 1994 and headquartered in New York, the firm helped pioneer the institutional secondary market and today oversees around $84 billion in assets and committed capital. Franklin Templeton agreed to acquire Lexington in 2021 for $1.75 billion, completing the transaction in 2022, while retaining it as a specialist investment manager within the wider group.
“Luxembourg was already one of Europe’s dominant investment-fund centres. Regulated funds held around €6.69 trillion in net assets at the end of July 2026, up more than 13% from a year earlier”
There is no public evidence that tax prompted Pitt’s move. That distinction matters at a time when almost every high-profile relocation from Britain risks being presented as part of a wider tax-driven exodus.
Luxembourg was already one of Europe’s dominant investment-fund centres. Regulated funds held around €6.69 trillion in net assets at the end of July 2026, up more than 13% from a year earlier, according to regulator CSSF.
But the Grand Duchy has also sharpened its appeal to investment professionals. A revised carried-interest regime introduced in 2026 can reduce the effective tax rate on qualifying contractual carried interest to roughly 12%, while other forms of qualifying carry may receive more favourable treatment.
Pitt’s move therefore sits within a broader, if still difficult to quantify, redistribution of financial talent across Europe.
A more explicit example came this month when billionaire hedge-fund manager Chris Rokos reportedly decided to transfer his tax residence from Britain to Greece and establish an office in Athens. Rokos, founder of the roughly $22 billion Rokos Capital Management, was estimated to have paid £330 million in UK tax last year.
Greece offers qualifying wealthy newcomers a €100,000 annual flat tax on foreign income for up to 15 years. It is also attracting investment firms: Millennium Management, which oversees more than $90 billion, is planning an Athens office, with senior portfolio manager Rahul Chopra expected to relocate from London.
Britain abolished its long-standing non-dom regime in April 2025, replacing it with a four-year foreign income and gains exemption for qualifying new arrivals.
Yet claims of a mass exodus still require caution. HMRC recorded 73,400 non-dom taxpayers in 2024-25, down just 0.5%, while their UK tax and National Insurance liabilities rose 7% to £9.7 billion. Crucially, those figures pre-date the new regime.
The more important question may therefore be not simply how many wealthy people leave Britain, but whether the investment teams, jobs and capital surrounding them increasingly begin to follow.
