Stricken banks pull in the profits for Odey
CRISPIN Odey, the hedge fund manager who made a killing over the course of the crisis by shorting stricken City banks, is set to pay himself a windfall of over £30m this year after profits at his firm soared by almost a quarter.
Odey Asset Management is today expected to file accounts showing that it made £68.4m over the year, compared to £55.3m in the last financial year.
Odey, one half of the couple nicknamed the “Posh and Becks of finance” along with his banker wife Nichola Pease, is set to take a salary of £30.4m, up on the £28m he paid himself last year.
The payout will not be subject to the government’s new super-levy on bank bonuses, after the Treasury clarified last week that hedge funds would not be liable to pay the tax.
Odey, who earlier this year threatened to move his firm’s domicile out of the UK to avoid the injurious new 50 per cent income tax band, has been vilified during the financial meltdown for profiting from short-selling firms such as nationalised lender Bradford & Bingley, Irish bank Anglo Irish, South African bank Investec and insurance giant Legal & General.