Former restaurateur leaves Brexit-backing hedge fund for small advisory firm

Christopher Bodker has left his role running a property fund at Toscafund Asset Management to join boutique advisory firm Blizzard Partners.

Bodkar, a former SG Warburg investment banker who retired from the industry in 1994 to start his own restaurant business, joined Toscafund in 2011 to run its £14.5m Prime Residential Fund. He left the hedge fund in July, according to filings on the Financial Conduct Authority Register.

But Bodkar has joined Blizzard Partners, which describes itself as an investment and advisory firm that works with both entrepreneurs and fund managers across a range of sectors.

Bodkar spent the bulk of his investment banking career working for and building SG Warburg’s business in New York, but left in 1994 to launch Moving Image Restaurants, which counted Kensington Place, Launceston Place and the Brackenbury restaurants among its portfolio. He also worked as a property developer.

Toscafund’s chief economist, Savvas Savouri, was a backer of Leave during EU referendum, but Brexit has not been good for the $4bn hedge fund. Its flagship fund lost 14.7% in June, according to a note to clients seen by the Wall Street Journal.

“We expected a close-run Brexit referendum but believed that ‘Remain’ would ultimately prevail. Clearly we were wrong. We were not well set up for such an outcome,” it said.

Photo: Sam Edwards/Getty Images