£110 million in ONE trade! Odey’s James Hanbury makes massive win by betting on pound values and Brexit
Odey Asset Management, which owns 25% of Plus500, has rising star James Hanbury as one of its most successful fund managers. Mr. Hanbury placed a smart bet on the outcome of the Brexit and netted £110 million in one go.
Blue blood, golden bank balance.
A sensible prediction on a seemingly obvious outcome on how the markets would react following the British referendum on European Union membership by 36 year old hedge fund manager James Hanbury has resulted in a vast win of £110 million.
Mr. Hanbury, who was educated at Harrow school and whose father is a close friend of Prince Charles joined British wealth management company Odey Asset Management which owns over 25% of retail electronic trading giant Plus500, in October 2008 to launch the Odey UK strategy.
From 2006 to 2008, Mr. Hanbury was a partner and fund manager at ZA Capital, an equity hedge fund founded by a Schroder colleague Zafar Ahmadullah. From 2003-06 James was an equity analyst at Schroders covering the retail and leisure sectors. James graduated from Edinburgh University in 2003 and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.
Mr. Hanbury is a very successful fund manager, having made a substantial 18.1% return on his trading over the last seven years with Odey Asset Management.
Upper class Mr. Hanbury, who manages £1.1 billion on behalf of Odey Asset Management, ignored the noise in the markets that the ‘remain’ – those who wanted the UK to stay a member of the European Union – voters would win during the referendum, taking the view that Britain would ultimately vote to leave and become an independent sovereign nation in the very first referenum on European Union membership since the nation joined the European Economic Area in 1973.
Mr. Hanbury made two very clear bets – one being that the country would elect to leave the European Union, and another that the ensuing volatility in the markets would cause a downturn in the value of the Pound.
He was indeed correct.
Mr. Hanbury commissioned a private poll which showed that those wishing to vote in favor of Britain remaining in the European Union was slightly ahead of those who wished to leave, and then decided to take a risk on the basis that there was a huge potential gain and very little chance of losing, given that the volatility in the markets may cause the Pound to drop in value, albeit temporarily, if Britain left the European Union, and would be unlikely to rise higher than its value prior to the referendum should Britain have elected to remain in the European Union.
Indeed, the Pound was at an 8 year high on the days before the referendum took place, indeed at its highest point since before the financial crisis of 2008 which resulted in the nationalization of many of the UK’s major banks.
The day after the EU referendum, the Pound plunged in value to a 31 year low, however this was temporary, and exactly as FinanceFeeds predicted, any downturn in economic strength would be extremely short lived.
This did not matter however, as Mr. Hanbury bet on the immediate period following the referendum results, netting him a remarkable £110 million.
Mr Hanbury’s boss Crispin Odey used Brexit to transform his fortunes from earlier in the year. He had been heavily down after racking up a string of bad bets, according to Bloomberg, but the billionaire’s flagship fund jumped more than 21 per cent after the Brexit vote.
Once again, this begs the question as to why there has been very little interest in the political futures market during the last month, when all eyes have been on spot trading of currencies.
Spot of sturgeon caviar and champagne, sir? Don’t mind if I do, dear chap.
