From Bloomberg, November 3:
Crispin Odey, one of the U.K.’s most bearish hedge fund managers, is stepping down from running his eponymous firm and rebranding several funds as he fights an indecent assault charge.
His London-based Odey Asset Management plans to create a new unit called Brook Asset Management to house the group of renamed funds, according to a statement Tuesday. Odey, 61, will now focus solely on managing client money and will start a new fund betting on higher inflation.
The moves cap a stormy period for Odey, who’s lost money in five of the last six years as record markets defied his pessimism on stocks. That’s seen assets at his company, run from a Georgian town house in London’s Mayfair district, shrink to about $3 billion from $13 billion in 2015. Odey is now facing a court trial next year after pleading not guilty to an accusation of groping a young female banking employee more than 20 years ago.
In his hedge fund career spanning three decades, Odey has become best known for making bold wagers that the market consensus was wrong. While that strategy can sometimes rake in eye-popping gains, like his flagship fund’s 53% gain in 2018, the losses can be equally stunning: the fund is down 62% over the past five years.
....MUCH MORE
The question on everyone's lips: "What of the chickens?"
September 2012
Palladio is Turning Over in His Tomb
UK Hedge Fund Manager Sets Unreachably High Bar With Resplendent Private Residence For Chicken Friends
…Odey has upped the ante for poultry accommodation – he’s building a temple for his chickens for which the stone alone costs £130,000. The Palladian-style chicken house, designed by Christopher Smallwood Architects, has won planning approval from the Forest of Dean District Council......(For those who can appreciate the news without worrying about what it’s going to cost them, here’s a blueprint of the chicken mansion, courtesy of FT Alphaville):
