Business Maverick

Business Maverick

Odey Asset Management to Shut After Complaints About Founder

Odey Asset Management to Shut After Complaints About Founder

Odey Asset Management is closing down, months after its founder Crispin Odey faced fresh allegations of sexual misconduct. 

The firm said on its website Tuesday that the entire business, including Brook Asset Management and Odey Wealth, will be closing. Its funds will either shutter or move to other companies.

Odey Asset Management has been spiraling since the Financial Times reported numerous sexual harassment and assault allegations against its founder, Crispin Odey, who has disputed the claims. Numerous banks have cut ties with his firm and investors have raced for the exits, forcing the company to shut two funds and suspend several others.

In June, Odey was removed from the firm that he’d established in 1991, and the hedge funds he ran until his departure have been transfered to Bainbridge Partners, where his former co-manager Freddie Neave will run them.

The claims about Odey’s behavior sparked months of negotiations as the fund managers at his firm tried to find other asset managers to house them and their money pools. Oliver Kelton moved to SW Mitchell Capital, whose founder Stuart Mitchell formerly worked at JO Hambro Investment Management at the same time as Kelton, according to their LinkedIn profiles.

The Brook Global Emerging Markets Fund — run by Sophia Whitbread, the only female portfolio manager at the firm — was shuttered.

With his company being wound down, the question is what Crispin Odey does next.

In late June, he approached a private investigator to discuss the “massive witch hunt” he faced. In a recording of their conversation, 64-year-old Odey criticized his treatment by the media and said he had been targeted by “the woke brigade,” adding that he planned to clear his name. Seth Freedman, who runs London-based corporate intelligence firm Red Mist, ultimately didn’t work with Odey.

Asked by the investigator about the swift expulsion by his company and counterparties, Odey said his partners had no grounds to take the business away from him.

“It served my corner quite well because they then had a death as far as they were concerned, the woke brigade, you know,” he said at the time. “So they stop and actually I then gather everything back up together and I then say ‘hey, let’s wait.’”

Two of Odey’s alleged victims sued the manager and his firm over sexual abuse allegations earlier this year. No details of the claims have been public yet.

Read below for the fate of the firm’s fund managers and their money pools:

  • James Hanbury and Jamie Grimston and the following funds have moved to Lancaster Investment Management:
    • LF Brook Absolute Return Fund
    • Brook Absolute Return IRL Fund
    • Brook Developed Markets Fund
    • Brook Absolute Return Focus Fund
    • LF Odey Opus Fund

 

  • Oliver Kelton and the following funds have moved to S.W. Mitchell Capital:
    • Brook European Focus Fund
    • LF Brook Continental European Fund
    • Brook European Focus Absolute Return Fund
    • Odey Pan European Fund
  • Odey Swan Fund is currently housed at S.W. Mitchell as the remaining assets are sold. The fund is in the process of fully closing.

 

  • Freddie Neave has moved to Bainbridge Partners
    • Odey European Inc. will be consolidated into a new fund run at Bainbridge Partners. Investors who have opted in will move into the new fund
    • OEI Mac will be consolidated into a new fund run at Bainbridge Partners. Investors who have opted in will move into the new fund

 

  • Geoffrey Marson and the Odey Opportunity Fund have moved to Canaccord Genuity in Guernsey
  • Adrian Courtenay and the Odey Special Situations Fund have moved to Green Ash Partners
  • The Brook Global Emerging Markets Fund, managed by Sophia Whitbread and Mathieu Rachmaninoff, has closed
  • The LF Odey Portfolio Fund, managed by Peter Martin, has closed.

Gallery

Comments - Please in order to comment.

Please peer review 3 community comments before your comment can be posted

MavericKids vol 3

How can a child learn to read if they don't have a book?

81% of South African children aged 10 can't read for meaning. You can help by pre-ordering a copy of MavericKids.

For every copy sold we will donate a copy to Gift of The Givers for children in need of reading support.

A South African Hero: You

There’s a 99.8% chance that this isn’t for you. Only 0.2% of our readers have responded to this call for action.

Those 0.2% of our readers are our hidden heroes, who are fuelling our work and impacting the lives of every South African in doing so. They’re the people who contribute to keep Daily Maverick free for all, including you.

The equation is quite simple: the more members we have, the more reporting and investigations we can do, and the greater the impact on the country.

Be part of that 0.2%. Be a Maverick. Be a Maverick Insider.

Support Daily Maverick→
Payment options