Bramdean Alts Falls 12% In Second Quarter

Date: Thursday, August 20, 2009
Author: FINalternatives

Nicola Horlick can’t catch a break.

The London hedge fund manager, dubbed “Superwoman” by the city’s tabloids, saw her listed fund of hedge funds vehicle suffer its worst-ever month in May, lost control of the fund in June to a shareholder rebellion, and now is hemorrhaging money because the pound can’t hold its own against the dollar.

While the average hedge fund soared in value during the second quarter, Bramdean Alternatives took a dive, the London Evening Standard reports. The fund of funds lost 12% from April through June, it told investors, blaming much of the decline on the falling price of the pound; more than two-thirds of the fund is invested in the U.S.

New fund boss Vincent Tchenguiz, who won his proxy battle to replace Bramdean Alts’ board, still hasn’t made good on his threats to fire Horlick. But the fund indicated that Tchenguiz may liquidate the fund, as he had previously called for.

“Since the company’s investment programme is now largely complete, the investment manager will be focusing on monitoring the exposures of underlying managers as well as researching low-risk, high-liquidity strategies to deploy the company’s cash,” Bramdean Alts said in its update.