Odey pays himself a £1m divi – as his flagship fund crashes 30.5pc

CRISPIN Odey took a dividend of up to £1.1m from his firm last year – despite tumbling profits and dismal performance.

The Brexit-backing hedge fund manager, who is set to defend himself in a historic sex assault trial next month, had a disappointing year as performance fees raked in by Odey Asset Management slumped to just £0.9m in the year ending April 5, 2020.

This compared to £ 11.9m the year before. It meant profit before tax for the Odey Asset Management Group almost halved from £17.5m to £9.8m. An investor letter sent out earlier this week showed the firm’s flagship Odey European fund fell 30.5pc last year, its fifth annual decline in the past six years.

And while the firm managed around £10bn of clients’ money in 2015, it is now down to around £2bn as several bets by 62-year-old Odey ( pictured) backfired. But directors still approved a dividend of £1.1m, up from £300,000 paid the year before.

The firm declined to comment on how much went to Odey, but he is listed as its ultimate controlling party, putting him in line for a large porition if not all of the pay out.

Odey stepped down from the helm of Odey Asset Management in November following allegations that he had groped a banker in 1998. The investor denies the allegations, and will go on trial in Hendon Magistrates’ court next month.

He is still managing his own funds, however.