Words: Tom Ward
Photography: Getty Images
He’s one of the UK’s best-known hedge fund managers but, come 28 September, Crispin Odey’s career is likely to hang in tatters. The founding partner of Odey Asset Management, 61, has been charged with indecent assault following a complaint made by a woman over an incident which allegedly took place at an address on Swan Walk, Chelsea (where Mr Odey owns a property) in July 1998. The Metropolitan Police brought charges against Odey this May, which he denies, telling the FT he will “strongly contest this matter.”
Whatever the outcome, it’s likely that Odey – who has vocally supported Boris Johnson and Brexit – will, at the very least, no longer continue in his role as founding partner of Odey Asset Management (a company which Odey claimed managed assets worth $6.5 to $7 billion as of 2011).
According to a Sunday Times article from 16 August, Odey Asset Management is preparing an emergency scheme to manage the firm’s future should Odey be convicted. This reportedly involves the closure of his European fund, with investors receiving their money back. The company’s ‘retail’ funds will reportedly be handed over to his colleagues James Hanbury and Oliver Kelton.
All of which may be of little consequence to Odey; according to the 2019 Sunday Times Rich List, he and his wife Nichola Pease (herself chairwoman of Jupiter Asset Management) are worth a combined £775 million, making them among the richest hedge fund managers in the UK.
But, while this assault allegation is certainly the most serious of the controversies surrounding Odey, it is by no means the first time he has garnered headlines for the wrong reasons. With his future uncertain, we look back at Odey’s rise to power, a rise that includes shorting the markets, betting against the pound, and reaping huge profits at times when people across the globe suffered the most.
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“Crispin Odey, 58, is a throwback to the 1980s. An habitué of White’s club and the grouse moor, he’s a Bunterish, helium-voiced roisterer of unfashionable opinions with messy Boris Johnson-style hair, a laugh like a drain and lapels on his suits wider than the M25,” This Is Money’s ‘The Dastardly Mr Deeds’ once wrote of Odey.
Pointing out that Odey Asset Management was down 49.5 per cent in 2016 and down another 20 per cent in 2017, the author continued: “[Odey’s] failure bears testament to the FTSE’s dogged resilience over the past two years. The bulk of Odey’s £775 million fortune is derived from short-selling, the aggressive practice of betting against a company’s share price.”
Born in East Yorkshire, Odey’s father was an industrialist while his grandfather, once the Conservative MP for Beverley, was, in Odey’s own words, “a formidable bully”. His mother was descended from a family of wealthy merchants. Odey graduated from Oxford in 1980 with a degree in history and economics. Shortly thereafter, he was put in charge of the 4,000-acre Hotham Hall which had been in his mother’s family since 1720 and sold it a few years later to sell off his father’s debts. His father, according to Odey was a “wastrel from beginning to end” and depended on handouts from his son.
"He’s a Bunterish, helium-voiced roisterer of unfashionable opinions with messy Boris Johnson-style hair, a laugh like a drain and lapels wider than the M25."
Odey took his first job in the financial world as part of Framlington fund managers. He then went to work for Barings International, running its European Growth Trust. In 1991, making use of $150 million from George Soros, Odey founded Odey Asset Management, quickly suffering huge losses (up to 44 per cent on one of his funds) when the Federal Reserve lifted interest rates in 1994.
He later profited by predicting that the value of insurers would rise following the 11 September terrorist attacks. Then, in 2005, Odey shorted Bradford & Bingley while warning about the dangers of debt and inflated house prices. In 2008 The Times named him a “Business Big Shot” and in 2009 he attracted controversy for telling the same paper that he would leave the UK to avoid paying 50 per cent income tax. He profited again during the 2008 financial crisis by shorting banking shares, something that helped him earn almost £28 million in the year that the world’s financial markets crashed and many lost everything.
Odey Asset Management’s 2016 decline saw Odey’s personal wealth dip by a reported £200 million, leading The Guardian to go with the headline “Hedge fund manager goes from billionaire to millionaire in profits plunge” – an abysmal performance in anyone’s books. However, according to This Is Money, Odey Asset Management recently made £115 million by predicting the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on the FTSE, seeing Odey sitting comfortable at a time when UK food banks are seeing record demand.
Odey – who remains a backer of Sky and was briefly married to Rupert Murdoch’s daughter for 15 months from 1985 to 1986 – was an outspoken supporter of Brexit, with Odey Asset Management making 15 per cent of its value following the results of the referendum. On the morning of the Brexit result he gloated to the BBC that “Il mattino ha l’oro in bocca” (“The morning has gold in its mouth”). Odey had made £220 million from predicting the markets would fall.
In 2018, The New York Times reported that Odey Asset Management’s value had decreased by more than a fifth, losing around 20.5 per cent from the previous year. According to the paper, Odey’s fund’s “performance has suffered heavily after he took a negative stance on the outlook for the global economy and bearish positions against shares that have not borne fruit.” In February 2019, with less than two months to go before what was then the final Brexit date, Odey bet against the pound once again.
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It’s a storied career to date. But, remarkably, Odey’s indecent assault charge is not even his first controversy of 2020. As well as his significant gains from the coronavirus crisis, Odey made headlines as recently as March over his investment in a firm – SLC Agricola – linked to Amazon deforestation.
The Brazilian company has been accused of clearing land from the rich Cerrado ecosystem – an important carbon sink – in order to plant soy crops. The company cleared at least 30,000 hectares between 2011 and 2017, an act which saw the Norwegian government pension fund divest from the group. It recently applied for licences to clear thousands of hectares more. Of course, Jair Bolsonaro’s government has drawn massive criticism for allowing Amazon land to be cleared.
"On the morning of the Brexit result he gloated to the BBC that “Il mattino ha l'oro in bocca”"
According to the Financial Times, Odey Asset Management has invested $170 million in SLC Agricola. Speaking to The Guardian, a spokesperson for Odey Asset Management said, “As active fund managers, we seek to invest in companies that we determine have a promising future, and one of the inputs to that evaluation is how those companies are using or adopting sustainable practices.”
SLC Agricola has been fined almost $2.5 million for a number of violations. Comparing the fine with BP’s $60 billion plus fine for the Deepwater Horizon disaster, Odey likened SLC Agricola’s fine to “a parking fine”, remarking that “$2 million is neither here nor there.”
After a decades-long career marred with controversy, Odey’s current criminal entanglement could be the one to end it all. Come 28 September, he will be facing a lot more than a parking fine.
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