Odey Asset Management is in talks with Lancaster Investment Management to transfer funds run by portfolio manager James Hanbury and restructure its flagship hedge fund as the investment firm grapples with the fallout from sexual assault allegations against its founder.
(Bloomberg) — Odey Asset Management is in talks with Lancaster Investment Management to transfer funds run by portfolio manager James Hanbury and restructure its flagship hedge fund as the investment firm grapples with the fallout from sexual assault allegations against its founder.
Odey said five funds will be rehoused under the plan, which is still under discussion and subject to regulatory approvals. The funds are LF Brook Absolute Return Fund, Brook Absolute Return (IRL), Brook Developed Markets Fund, Brook Absolute Return Focus Fund and LF Odey Opus Fund.
The move follows a similar step taken by the firm to transfer fund manager Oliver Kelton’s money pools.
London-based Lancaster was started by Matthew Wood and James Roycroft in 2007. Wood previously was the co-head of Europe and a senior portfolio manager at Magnetar Capital, while Roycroft earlier worked at Elliott Associates in London, according to the firm’s website.
Odey Asset Management is battling to contain an investor exodus after a June 8 article in the Financial Times alleged that founder Crispin Odey mistreated women over a roughly 25-year period. He denies the allegations. Assets in its funds have plunged by as much as 63% since then, forcing the firm to look to rehouse its money pools and employees.
Odey is also seeking approval from shareholders to restructure its Odey European Inc. and OEI Mac Inc. hedge funds, the firm said in separate letters to clients seen by Bloomberg.
It’s looking to start new funds and switch assets of the two existing funds into those vehicles. Under the proposal, the firm said it would appoint an established, third-party manager regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and that portfolio manager Freddie Neave “would leave Odey Asset Management and be rehoused at that firm,” according to the letter.
Under the plan, existing clients would be cashed out of the current funds and issued shares in the new funds. The firm doesn’t expect Crispin Odey, who previously managed the funds with Neave, to switch to the third-party manager. A spokesman declined to comment beyond the letters.
(Updates with details on Lancaster in fourth paragraph and restructuring proposal for additional funds in last three paragraphs.)
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