Two more Odey funds frozen to prevent investors from fleeing

Crispin Odey’s beleaguered asset management firm has suspended two more funds to prevent investors from fleeing.

Odey Asset Management has blocked withdrawals from its flagship Odey European Inc fund after it received requests to return 19 per cent of its value.

It also suspended its OEI Mac Inc fund after investors tried to withdraw 35 per cent of its value. 

Combined, the two funds managed assets worth around £1.2billion.

Odey, who was ousted from his own firm this month amid a string of sexual harassment allegations which he denies, managed both of the funds prior to his exit from the business. 

In a letter to clients regarding the European Inc fund, the firm said allowing withdrawals would ‘not be in the best interests of the fund and its shareholders as a whole’, Bloomberg reported.

The asset manager is considering restructuring some operations to allow clients to transfer their money into a new fund.

The group has been in crisis since the Financial Times published allegations of sexual misconduct against Odey by 13 women, sparking a rush of withdrawal requests from clients while several City institutions began to cut ties. 

The company has said it was ‘considering several options’ for its future as the allegations took a ‘serious’ toll.

The group has also said it was in ‘advanced discussions’ to break itself up and transfer funds and staff to rivals in what could spell the end of the firm.

The debacle is a catastrophe for Odey, one of the UK’s most prominent financiers who set up the firm in 1991 and gained a reputation for profiting from risky bets including against the pound during the Brexit vote.

The 64-year-old has lost his status as a ‘fit and proper’ individual in the City of London, days after being ousted from the hedge fund in a symbolic blow.