Background
Odey was born in east Yorkshire. He was educated at Harrow School, where his father had been head boy, and graduated from Christ Church, Oxford in 1980 with a degree in history and economics.
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Crispin Odey
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Christ Church; Harrow School.
Career
In April 2011 the firm had $6.5 to $7 billion under management, with Odey personally running $4 billion of assets. After university he qualified as a barrister but instead joined Framlington fund managers, leaving to work for Barings International where he managed the Baring European Growth Trust. He ran continental European pension funds at Barings and at Framlington.
Odey founded in 1991.
George Soros was one of the original investors, seeding Odey $150 million. He suffered large losses in 1994 when the Federal Reserve unexpectedly lifted interest rates (one of his funds lost 44 per cent of its value), but went on to thrive, for instance by foreseeing that the value of insurers would rise after the September 11 attacks on New York in 2001.
Through the early part of the 2000s Odey worked closely with Hugh Hendry, whom he had recruited and who ran Odey"s top performing Continental Europe Fund. Hendry left in 2005 to establish Eclectica Asset Management.
In reference to Hendry, Odey himself said: "Odey in the 1990s was a one-man band.
Odey in the 2000s was a two-man band."
Odey came to wide attention in 2008 when he paid himself £28 million after successfully anticipating the cr crunch. That year his return was 54.8 per central He had been bearish about the position of banks for a number of years, shorting Bradford & Bingley as early as 2005, questioning the German landesbanks and warning consistently about the dangers of debt and inflated house prices.
He continued his short positions into early 2009 but in April took longer positions as he predicted the market rally of that year.
The Times newspaper selected Odey as a "Business Big Shot" in 2008. In May 2009 Odey attracted some controversy for saying in The Times that he would leave the country to avoid paying 50% income tax
He was at the centre of further controversy when it was suggested that he financially backed anti-European Union campaigners in the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty while some hedge funds had taken out specific bets on the insolvency of the country in the event that the vote not be carried. The Treaty passed by a margin of 67.1 per cent to 32.9 per central
Odey denied that he had funded the Libertas "no" campaign in faxes issued to Raidió Teilifís Éireann and TV3.
In May 2010, formed a new investment management firm with Geneva’s Bruellan Wealth Management called Odey Bruellan. "s Odey European Incorporated. fund was ranked Number. 5 on Bloomberg"s 2012 list of the 100 Top-Performing Large Hedge Funds.
