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Odey Asset Administration has vacated its longstanding Mayfair workplace, closing the doorways on one in all London’s oldest hedge funds’ headquarters after sexual assault allegations towards founder Crispin Odey pressured the agency to interrupt itself up.
Workers on the shrinking firm have moved from Higher Brook Avenue into serviced workplaces a brief stroll away at 64 North Row, in line with a Corporations Home submitting on Wednesday. The brand new premises are run by One Avenue, which describes them on its web site as “luxurious” and “cutting-edge”.
Crispin Odey established his eponymous hedge fund agency on Higher Grosvenor Avenue in Mayfair in 1991, earlier than increasing after which transferring to a constructing shut by on Higher Brook Avenue. The Higher Brook Avenue workplaces have been famed for an opulent basement eating room with floor-to-ceiling wine racks, the place lunches have been typically catered by the close by Michelin-starred Le Gavroche restaurant.
In June, a Monetary Occasions investigation detailing allegations of sexual assault or harassment towards Crispin Odey from 13 girls threw the agency into disaster as key banking companions shortly moved to chop ties and buyers sought to withdraw their cash. Final month, the FT reported comparable allegations from six extra girls towards him.
The veteran financier, who strenuously denies the claims, was ejected from the agency he established days after the primary allegations have been printed however Odey Asset Management has been unable to efficiently distance itself from its founder and has as an alternative been pressured to set off a wind-down plan. The corporate has needed to droop or shutter sure funds whereas arranging to switch fund managers to rivals.
James Hanbury, star fund supervisor on the agency’s Brook Asset Administration subsidiary, has agreed to maneuver along with his workforce to boutique advisory agency Lancaster Funding Administration. Hanbury’s Absolute Return fund, which manages £369mn in line with the corporate’s web site, was one in all a number of funds that suspended withdrawals in June because the agency tried to include the disaster. Hanbury’s transfer was agreed final month and the fund has since reopened.
In June, Odey Asset Administration stated it was in “superior talks” to switch Oliver Kelton and 4 funds he ran to funding boutique SW Mitchell Capital. The most important of those is the Brook European Focus, which in line with the agency’s web site has €602mn belongings below administration.
Freddie Neave, who took over managing OEI Mac, one in all Crispin Odey’s flagship funds, is in discussions to maneuver to Landseer Asset Administration and change shareholders’ investments to a brand new fund as a part of a restructuring introduced in July.
Two different funds beforehand managed by Crispin Odey have been wound down completely, with Odey Portfolio already closed and Odey Swan set to redeem buyers by September 4.
Probes by the UK’s monetary watchdog into Odey Asset Administration and Crispin Odey are ongoing. Final month, the Monetary Conduct Authority set out the size of its investigations in a letter to the Treasury choose committee.
The FCA is investigating Odey Asset Administration for attainable contraventions of the watchdog’s enterprise ideas, together with “failing to conduct its affairs with due talent, care and diligence”. The investigation into Crispin Odey centres on whether or not he’s a “match and correct particular person” to work in monetary providers, which if discovered towards him would ban him from future roles.
Jill Greenfield, a lawyer at Fieldfisher who’s representing two of his alleged victims, has requested the FCA to ringfence belongings at Odey Asset Administration to make sure cash might be out there to pay any future redress awarded to victims as the ladies look at potential litigation.
Odey Asset Administration declined to remark.
