Odey Asset Management is in the process of finding a new home for its funds and some of its staff as it struggles to stay in business after sexual assault allegations against its founder Crispin Odey.
(Bloomberg) — Odey Asset Management is in the process of finding a new home for its funds and some of its staff as it struggles to stay in business after sexual assault allegations against its founder Crispin Odey.
The investment firm is in advanced discussions to transfer its funds and some of its staff to other asset mangers, Odey Asset Management said in a letter to investors on Thursday seen by Bloomberg News. The talks come after many of banks that Odey trades with moved to cut ties and investors pulled money.
A spokesman for the investment firm declined to comment.
“We have been, and remain in constructive dialogue with our service providers and key counterparties,” Odey Asset Management said in the letter. “It has however become clear that some investment management activities of the partnership are affected by recent events.”
The unraveling was triggered by the publication last Thursday of a Financial Times investigation into Odey’s treatment of women over a 25-year period that included multiple allegations of sexual harassment and assault. The accusations followed similar reports in the two years since he was acquitted of an assault charge in British courts in 2021. Two women came forward to Bloomberg News, another went to the Times of London newspaper. Later, more appeared in a Tortoise Media podcast.
The London-based investment firm, which until recently managed about $4.3 billion, said on Saturday that it had fully divorced itself from its founder in the wake of the allegations. That wasn’t enough to save its banking relationships, with Morgan Stanley moving to terminate its prime brokerage service and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. following soon after. A wave of investor redemption requests on Monday forced a fund closure and the gating of at least two others.
On Wednesday, politicians sought answers from UK’s Financial Conduct Authority into its prolonged probe of the firm.
Read more: UK Watchdog Pressured to Answer Questions About Odey Probe (2)
The majority of the firm’s assets are managed by portfolio managers other than Crispin Odey. Several funds were renamed to remove Odey’s name and housed under the trading name Brook Asset Management when Odey was fighting the previous assault charge.
In its letter to investors, the firm said its fund mangers support the moves and that any sale or rehousing would be subject to regulatory approval.
–With assistance from Michael J. Moore.
(Updates with details of the crisis and fund management structure)
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