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Singling me out over loss is sexist says Horlick
Jack Lefley15 Dec 2008
NICOLA HORLICK came out fighting today after a company she jointly runs lost millions in a US fraud.
She claimed she had been the victim of a sexist "witch-hunt" since it emerged that Bramdean Alternatives lost around £13million - 9.5 per cent of its assets - by investing with Wall Street broker Bernard Madoff.
Madoff was arrested in the US after allegedly masterminding a hedge fund swindle which has run up losses of $50billion (£35billion).
Major individual investors, hedge funds and banks across the world have been exposed to huge losses with some of America's richest socialites now facing ruin.
Ms Horlick is head of Bramdean Asset Management which jointly manages the Bramdean Alternatives fund with RMF, part of the Man Group.
She insisted today that the £13million was a "tiny amount" of the money managed by Bramdean Asset Management. She claimed she had been "singled out" for scrutiny because she was a woman, despite other firms losing much larger sums.
Ms Horlick, who earned the nickname Superwoman by holding a top City job while raising five children, told the Standard: "If I wasn't a woman would all this rubbish be printed about me?
"If I wasn't a woman would there be huge pictures of me on the front of newspapers? I am an ordinary person who manages pension funds for pensioners. If I was a male fund manager this would not happen. Someone has to take a stand. If women are persecuted in this way you won't have any female fund managers. This could destroy me.
"I have just been to my son's carol concert and everyone has come up to me as if my business is finished. How can that be right?
"This is all about people thinking that women's pictures on the front pages sell newspapers. I don't even manage that part of the portfolio."
Many hedge funds placed money with Madoff and the scandal is being viewed as a major blow to a sector which has already been badly hit by the credit crisis.
RMF was responsible for running the strategic hedge fund part of Bramdean Alternatives which was exposed to the fraud.
Ms Horlick praised RMF for doing an "exceptional job" and said the losses would be cancelled out by the rest of the portfolio.
She said that the £13million lost by Bramdean Alternatives equated to just 0.13 per cent of the money managed by Bramdean Asset Management.
And she revealed she had received emails and phone calls from major City figures voicing their disgust at the way she had been singled out.
Ms Horlick said: "Between us we have made a lot of good decisions. Any suggestion that Bramdean is mortally wounded is way off. The fact that this man ran off with the money is hardly my fault."
Reader views (24)
Its time to get over yourself. Being a public figure works both ways. Any celebrity who self promotes to increase their profile will, in return, get lots of publicity if they screw up too. Welcome to the real world of public figures. You're getting what you deserve for being careless with other peoples money. Its tough to be viewed in a negative light but it has nothing to do with you having boobs. Suck it up and move on, after all you are a feminist and isn't that how you want to be seen. Gosh - feminists aren't perfect after all. Gee - who knew!
- Mike Murphy, Sault Ste. Marie, ON Canada, 18/12/2008 16:34
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"If I wasn't a woman would all this rubbish be printed about me? "
Yes I believe it would. Your firm despite all the talk of 'due diligence' lost client money in an admitted Ponzi scheme.
For you to play the gender card is simply disgraceful.
- Richard, Chicago IL, 17/12/2008 18:54
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A bit of a smokescreen here. Never mind the alleged sexism. Bramdean Alternatives put nearly 10% of its assets with this guy. This is a supposedly diversified fund promoting itself particularly to female investors (via Bramdiva). Bramdean Management LLC has earnt millions of dollars of fees, including performance fees for investing in the Madoff funds. I sincerely hope these will be refunded, as the performance was clearly illusory. The stewardship of Bramdean Alternative's NED's has also been clearly lacking. I sincerely hope they will be refunding to investors the £27k pa they have been paid for zero oversight. Ditto Bramdean Alternative's Chairman's £75k per annum. Nice work if you can get it.
- Chris Edge, East Sheen, UK, 17/12/2008 00:25
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The question is not her gender. The question is why her fund of hedge funds, based on the concept of thorough due diligence, invested with Madoff.
Brad
- Brad, Michigan, USA, 16/12/2008 22:02
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This person tilts at imaginary demons while failing to see her own startling ineptitude and utter professional failure. Bravo! She'd fit in well here in the modern USA, if only she'd learn to get taxpayers to suffer for her irresponsibility.
- Patrick Henry, Boston, USA, 16/12/2008 19:12
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I'm a female fund manager in the city and I disagree completely with Nicola Horlick...she used the feminist angle to gain celebrity status in the city which is fine when it worked in her favour. She can't have it both ways - she made a mistake and being in the limelight she's now been singled out. It's the result of her PR machine...not of sexism.
- Pauline, London, 16/12/2008 15:45
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I saw her referred to as a victim in London Lite. In what way is she a 'victim'? Can someone explain? I thought a victim was someone who deserves sympathy...The ordinary tax-paying citizen is the victim here. no doubt.
And ss everyone else here has said - she didn't call it sexism when she was getting praise/PR.
- Lewis, London, 16/12/2008 09:26
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Horlick brazenly used the 'look at me, I'm a woman, mother and financial superstar' angle to build herself up, so she can't be surprised that she's getting it all back, can she?
- Paul, London, 16/12/2008 09:26
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I am sure that she will be "spending more time with the family" in the not to distant future!
- Raminder Bhalla, Northolt, 16/12/2008 09:02
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Oh really! So, it is not sexist to praise her but it is sexist to criticise her! She has no chance of getting my money and with a mentality of a spoilt child you might re-consider whether she should manage yours?
- Joe, Thornton Heath, 15/12/2008 18:35
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IF she hadn't have so brazenly courted publicity in the first place, then nobody would have heard of Nicola Horlick and THEN there would be no story.
- Jon Anthony, United Kingdom, 15/12/2008 16:59
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Someone who loves the limelight has got to expect extra attention when she destroys 10% of her investors money on an unhedged bet - hopefully people will see that Ms Horlick is not quite as good as she thinks she is in future. If a man had done the same he'd get the same attention.
- Seb, London, England, 15/12/2008 16:41
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First she lashes out at the SEC, and then she claims "sexism". The reality is that she didn't do the due diligence that she should have done before she put the money in, and this was the result.
Female or not, she needs to stand up and take responsibility for her actions, not try to create a smoke screen of alternative news to try to divert attention from the basic fact that she was an idiot on this on.
If you put £13 million into an institution, would you want to make at least one personal visit to the auditor before handing over the check?
- Simon, London, UK, 15/12/2008 16:23
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Oh please Ms Horlick, you are not being singled out because you are a woman (your equivalent of the race card) but because 1) you courted the press enough when they were nice to you and 2) you got it resoundingly wrong this time. Pity you chose to focus your comments on yourself rather than your clients whose pensions and future may well be threatened by your decisions. Surely they expected such an expert as yourself to take all necessary precautions and make all relevant checks before investing their money? As for papers selling more when putting pictures of women on their front pages, this may well be true but in this case a little humility on your part (and I am being kind here) would be good too.
- Daniel, London, 15/12/2008 16:21
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Why on earth is this sexist??? She is just a well known City figure, that's all.
- Ken Joralemon, London, UK, 15/12/2008 16:02
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You've not been singled out Nicola. Women can be stupid, greedy and lazy, too. What a strange system: we pick a fund to invest in, just to find that our money has been parceled up into another fund, without due diligence being done. What a careless game of "pass the parcel" with our savings. Every time our money gets shifted about it creates another lot of commission for the greedy and irresponsible. Shame the FSA is such a toothless moggy.
- Broomstix, London, 15/12/2008 15:29
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I vaguely remember and article some years ago that a fund she ran had a annual return of minus 23 pct ish, but they paid themselves
5 million pound bonuses. So I suppose 13 million of other peoples money is fairly insignificant to her.
- Chris, Woking. UK, 15/12/2008 14:55
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Bankers seem incapable of accepting any responsibility for their actions. Nicola, how does the fact that you have breasts relate to a poor investment decision - the fact that Madoff did a runner with almost 10% of your companies' assets IS your fault !!!!
- Joe, London, 15/12/2008 14:04
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She needs to get over herself. She has shamelessly used the media for self promotion and cannot complain when she features again.
- Carl, London, 15/12/2008 13:56
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Well she would say it's sexist wouldn't she, although I would have thought a 10% exposure was OK.
- Steve, London, 15/12/2008 13:42
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The reason she is being singled out is because she has a high media profile which she has used to boost her career and make money. This was her choice and she should not whine when her mistakes are made public as a consequence.
- Amos, basingstoke, 15/12/2008 13:05
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Part of the "its not my fault syndrome"
Horrlick and her staff failed to act on the elementary adage "if it's too good to be true: its neither true nor good."
Did she and her staff visit Madoff? If so how often? hat questions did they ask? Did thye have a detailed explanation of why the return was so high? What detail did they go into? Would Warren Buffet have made this mistake?
Quite simply bad management at Breamdean - they fell for the oldest scam in the book - a simple Ponzi - taking money from new investors to pay the previous.
Fund managers in general are over paid - they seldom outperform the index, and are no protection against duds. Are Horrlick and c refundg their fees? And would she be so blasé if it was her own money?
- Michael Corby, London UK, 15/12/2008 12:43
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"Bramdean, a closed end fund listed on the London Stock Exchange in both USD and GBP share classes, had two positions with Madoff:
When the final scorecard shows up, and that won’t be any time soon, Bramdean’s holdings will not appear separately. Run that scenario a few dozen, or hundred, times, and...well, Good Luck to those charged with sorting out the mess.
In the meantime, having nothing better to do, the UK’s Financial Services Authority might well spend a few minutes inquiring of Ms Horlick why her company chose to describe two substantially identical investments in such different terms. Obviously, misleading investors as to the concentration of its holdings had nothing to do with it."
- Nick, paris France, 15/12/2008 11:56
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Sorry Nicola, it's not sexism, its the fact that you went on the record saying Madoff was so clever which makes you look so stupid. Oh yes. And it's the fact that you put as much as 10% in... didn't they teach you about diversification?
- Roger, London, 15/12/2008 11:44
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