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Odey Asset Administration has requested traders to help a restructuring of considered one of its oldest funds as a part of wider efforts to extract its founder, Crispin Odey, from the enterprise within the wake of allegations of serial sexual misconduct.
In a letter to purchasers on Friday and seen by the Monetary Instances, the hedge fund agency proposed to restructure Cayman Islands-based OEI Mac by switching shareholders’ investments to a brand new fund, which might then be rehoused below a rival agency.
Beneath the plans, Freddie Neave, a portfolio supervisor at Odey Asset Administration, would additionally run the brand new fund and go away the agency to work on the competitor, following “an identical funding goal and technique” as earlier than.
Neave took over managing OEI Mac from Crispin Odey three weeks in the past, after the financier was ousted from the firm he founded in 1991.
One of many key funds upon which Crispin Odey constructed his renown, OEI Mac was based in February 1994 and had about $507mn below administration earlier this 12 months. The agency needed to suspend withdrawals from it and a string of different funds earlier this month as Odey Asset Administration struggled to comprise the fallout from sexual misconduct allegations towards Crispin Odey. He strenuously denies the claims.
The allegations from 13 girls detailed in an FT investigation printed in the beginning of this month led to key banking partners severing ties and the break-up of the agency, as regulators and politicians circle.
After two weeks of silence relating to potential patrons of sure of the agency’s funds, on Tuesday Odey Asset Administration mentioned it was in “superior talks” about transferring 4 funds and their supervisor, Oliver Kelton, to London-based investment boutique SW Mitchell Capital.
The proposed restructuring of OEI Mac will take a look at investor help for Neave and the agency’s skill to efficiently extract Crispin Odey from the methods he oversaw. The financier had about $600mn of his personal cash invested in funds he beforehand managed on the agency.
The agency mentioned it “anticipated” that Crispin Odey wouldn’t change his investments to the brand new fund. It added that it could stop to behave as an funding supervisor for OEI Mac, which must discover a new residence if it had been to stay a going concern.
Within the letter to purchasers, the agency acknowledged that if there weren’t “enough help” for the restructuring proposal, the choice “can be to compulsorily redeem traders within the fund.”
It added that “discussions are below method” with lots of the fund’s present service suppliers, together with its prime brokers, with a view to them being appointed to the brand new fund.
Odey Asset Administration didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. The Monetary Conduct Authority declined to remark.
