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Tuesday 9 June 2009

Hampshire horror story moves on

Dear Reader, you may remember the tale of Nicola Horlick and her battle with Vincent Tchenguiz, which had all the ingredients of a Jane Austen novel.

It is now time fr the next chapter, for Ms Horlick's company, UK asset manager Bramdean Alternatives, has named the mysterious suitor who has emerged as a rival the proposal by property tycoon Vincent Tchenguiz. It is none another Hampshire name, Petersfield Asset Management Limited, beneficially owned, forsooth, by none other than Nicola Horlick.

Ms Horlick, as one well remembers, made a name for herself by flouncing out of Deutsche Bank. She then courted the womens' pages in the national press by presenting herself as the only woman to have ever worked and raised a family at the same time. Not necessarily successfully, because as readers will recal from last year, while Ms Horlick took care of her family, she aske Bernard Madoff to babysit a substantial part of her investors' money, which is one reason why Bramdean Alternatives reported a net asset value of $257 million at the end of July 2007, but only $181 million in March of this year.

Mr Tchenguiz, who holds a 28 percent stake, has called for an extraordinary general meeting on June 18 to replace the chairman and directors.

To paraphase Jane Austen, it has become a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune is in need of a woman to spend it for him, but paying 2% annual management fees for the privelege adds insult to injury.

1 comment:

Demetrius said...

Mr. Tcgenguiz's main base is the Consensus Business Group, which currently needs all the help it can get. He is not in possession of a good fortune, only the ability to rack up service charges on OAP's in sheltered housing by up to and over 10% a year to cover some unhappy ventures. The £181 million would give him some much needed leverage.