Money mogul Crispin Odey bought shares in Russian mining company Polymetal International after the price crashed, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The hedge fund tycoon said he invested in the London-listed firm two weeks ago as investors dumped Russia-connected stocks.
The share price, at £3.15, is still 71 per cent lower than before Russia invaded Ukraine. But Odey said: ‘Over 60 per cent of its business is not in Russia but Kazakhstan, so this is really overdone. So I bought some at £1.40.’
Meltdown: Crispin Odey has bought shares in Russian miner Polymetal
The Harrow-educated fund manager said he also held a ‘tiny’ number of shares in Russian oil giant Rosneft. But the fluctuation in price ‘was so horrible I didn’t keep with it’.
Odey set up Odey Asset Management in Mayfair, London, in 1991.
He runs funds including the flagship Odey European, which he said was up 56 per cent so far this year. The war sparked sanctions against Russia, and investors raced to sell shares before the restrictions meant most Russian assets could not be traded.
Polymetal’s founder and largest shareholder Alexander Nesis is on the US list of sanctioned Russian oligarchs. The company is run by his brother, Vitaly.
Odey also said the rising cost of living in the UK meant the country faced a recession later this year, adding: ‘Given how tight the labour force is, wages will have to rise quite sharply, and that’s what we’ll get in the second half of the year.
‘Then the pressure will be on interest rates to rise.’
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