Morning Coffee: Hedge fund manager who massaged female employees may have miscalculated. Private equity firms upgrading own staff

When he was running hedge fund Odey Asset Management, Robin Crispin William Odey had a well-earned reputation as an aristocratic maverick. "I have been my own man,” he informed Institutional Investor five years ago, while noting that he is a historian and predicting that history will come down on his side.

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History has has not since been kind to Crispin Odey. In 2023, the Financial Times wrote a bombshell article claiming that Odey - previously described benignly by the paper as “a large puppy in a pinstripe suit,” had sexually assaulted 13 women who worked for him. Odey, who previously defended himself in British courts against an assault claim in 2021 and won, said the allegations were "rubbish." He is now pursuing the FT for £79m in damages in a trial that's due to take place in June and July this year.   

Odey Asset Management closed in 2023 and was rendered dormant in January 2026, so Crispin Odey has plenty of time on his hands after selecting which pink shirt to wear. He's using it to reclaim his legacy and rewrite recent history. Alongside the FT libel case, Odey is pursuing the British Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for holding a "hostile animus" against him and for unfairly banning him from working in financial services. 

Odey's three week trial against the FCA began this week. Unfortunately, the script so far may not be entirely as Odey had envisaged. As the FT reported yesterday, the court has ruled that the sexual misconduct allegations against Crispin Odey can be aired in the FCA case because they're relevant to his fitness and propriety to work in financial services. Those same allegations will be aired again in his case against the FT in a few months.

Odey's public persona is therefore once again shrouded in comments like, "I think he is a sex pest I’m afraid," even as his lawyers attempt to direct attention to the FCA's alleged “pressure, prejudgment and prevarication” in dealing with their client.

Much like ex-Barclays CEO Jes Staley, who attempted to take on the FCA and clear his name last year, but who failed (only for far more shocking allegations to subsequently emerge against him), Odey may yet decide that history would have been kinder had he remained on his country estate. At the very least, Odey appears to accept that he once gave a receptionist at Odey Asset Management a shoulder massage that somehow evolved into breast groping. A report from law firm Simmons & Simmons, prepared for the regulator, describes this incident, which Odey reportedly admitted to, but blamed on a dental sedative. The FCA's lawyer told the court that Odey admitted, “he did give quite a lot of shoulder massages,”

Unfortunately, Odey may not have had good role models or good advice. He previously described his father as “a wastrel from beginning to end” and his grandfather as a "formidable bully." Odey's wife and mother of his three children - fund manager Nichola Pease - has recently divorced him. It's easy to see why attempting to clear his name might seem appealing, but it will be a tough battle and a difficult year. However, his court cases turn out, public perception may remain that the formidable puppy has elements of the dirty old dog. 

Separately, as private equity firms struggle to exit investments, some funds are upgrading their staff.

The FT notes that Carlyle evicted both Marco De Benedetti and Jonathan Zafrani as co-heads of its European private equity fund and replaced them with the aptly named "Michael Wand" who is a TMT specialist. 

The evictions happened in 2024, so Wand has had plenty of time to come up with new ideas. He wants to invest in "technology, healthcare, professional services and advanced industrials," and not consumer investments, which may not be the best thing in war time. Wand also wants to work more closely with portfolio companies and operations teams now that leverage is less potent than it used to be.

It's not clear what's happened to De Benedetti and Zafrani's favoured juniors, but it's a sign that private equity careers are less stable than before. If you don't have the magic, a new wand will waft you away.

Meanwhile...

Jon Thompson, a tech portfolio manager at Point72, generated hundreds of millions of dollars in investment gains in the first two months of the year. He did so by investing in hardware companies behind AI and shorting software stocks. (WSJ) 

Nomura wants to hire for its FX and emerging markets trading teams in Asia. (Reuters) 

When private credit firms are in trouble, they can sell collateralized loan obligations, or CLOs, backed by bundles of corporate loans. The higher-yielding CLO bonds that private-credit funds primarily hold lost 4.1% in February, after gains of 1% in January and December. (WSJ) 

Apollo Global is preparing to start reporting the net asset values of its credit funds on a monthly basis. (Bloomberg) 

Morgan Stanley and private credit lender Cliffwater have restricted withdrawals from private credit funds. (Financial Times) 

Deutsche Bank says US commercial real estate remains a “key risk." (Bloomberg) 

HSBC has $23bn of exposure to the UAE and Qatar. (Reuters) 

Ex-investment banking analyst Tony Chin founded hedge fund Infini Capital in Hong Kong. Now he's been raided by authorities. (Bloomberg) 

The new dress code in the City of London. White trainers, navy trousers, a knit, sometimes a gilet thrown over a shirt, as if dressed for a weekend that never quite arrives. It looks casual but it isn’t relaxed. (The Times) 

This is the deck being used by the US government to recruit bankers to its economic defense unit. (X)

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