Tchenguiz seizes Horlick's fund with view to liquidation

Nick Goodway
18 Jun 2009

Nicola Horlick's future as fund manager to the quoted Bramdean Alternatives was up in the air tonight after property tycoon Vincent Tchenguiz succeeded in his bid to remove the original board of the investment fund.

Bramdean is City superwoman Horlick's only publicly listed fund, and she has been plotting a takeover bid for it after its shares fell sharply in value.

But the old board, which was chaired by former 3i boss Brian Larcombe, turned her approach down last week forcing her to go hostile if she still wants to bid.

Now after a nailbitingly close vote this afternoon Tchenguiz nominees who form the new board and are headed by chairman Jonathan Carr began "to implement actions to realise shareholder value as soon as possible".

That could mean a fairly rapid liquidation of the fund, which owns a mixture of hedge funds and private-equity investments.

The new board also made it clear that it was still prepared to look at a takeover bid from Horlick if she makes one.

But it will also be looking at removing her as fund manager. She earns an annual 1.5% fee on the value of the fund and could be due as much as £8 million if her contract is ended.

Tchenguiz has criticised Horlick's investment decisions strongly including the scale of future commitments she has made to private-equity firms. It was also revealed last year that Bramdean Alternatives lost £10 million after Horlick invested almost 10% of the value of the fund with convicted New York fraud Bernie Madoff.

Tchenguiz spent £38 million taking a 28.8% stake in Bramdean Alternatives when it floated almost two years ago. Since then its share price has halved. That put him at loggerheads with Horlick, who is also a tenant in his main office block on Park Lane.

Today's shareholder meeting was held in Guernsey where Bramdean Alternatives is registered. Tchenguiz vehicle Elsina had always claimed that it had the support of more than 50% of the shares.

The meeting turned into a fraught affair when administrators tried to rule out one of Tchenguiz backers - believed to be Brit Insurance which has a 3.9% stake - on the grounds its voting form had been filled in incorrectly. Threats of legal action by Elsina ensured that Brit was able to vote the way it wished.

Tchenguiz had always been able to count on the support of hedge fund group Man's RMF fund, which took his vote to 47.8%. On the day he also got the support of Brit and wealth manager Tilney with a 5.4% stake.

The outgoing board had the support of Horlick's long-term backers the public authority pension funds of Hampshire and Merseyside who together hold 34% of the equity. In the end the Tchenguiz proposals were backed by 56% of the shareholders with the old board receiving support from only 44%.