Crispin Odey's flagship European Inc hedge fund recorded its best performance last year since launching back in 1991 driven largely by a series of winning bets on spiralling inflation, according to a report by Bloomberg.

Crispin Odey's flagship European Inc hedge fund recorded its best performance last year since launching back in 1991 driven largely by a series of winning bets on spiralling inflation, according to a report by Bloomberg.

The report cites an investor document as revealing that fund chalked up annual returns of 152% in 2022 on the back of leveraged bets against long-dated UK government bonds which paid off when Kwasi Kwarteng's September mini budget in September spooked financial markets, causing the pound to slump and bond yields to soar.  

The winning gilt bets represented a turn around in fortunes for Odey who racked up big losses between 2015 and 2020 after a series of bearish wagers repeatedly failed. 

The Mayfair based firm has now reportedly fully recouped those losses although the hedge fund, which once had $1.8 billion in assets at its peak in 2015, is down to €326 million ($346 million) as of the end of November and has been closed to new clients to "protect the interests" of existing investors.