The fund has assets of £130m but a market capitalisation of just £69m after investors sold out when it lost money invested with shamed American financier Bernard Madoff. Some 9.5% of its assets (£14m) had been with Madoff-linked funds.
Aberdeen said its fund manager Alex Barr would take over the fund. Aberdeen already has around £500m in fund of hedge funds and fund of private equity funds mandates similar to Bramdean’s portfolio.
Aberdeen paid an undisclosed fund to buy Horlick’s Bramdean Asset Management out of the remaining two years of its contract. It has a three-year deal to run the company.
Bramdean Alternatives will be rebranded with an Aberdeen name but Bramdean Asset Management will work on a consultancy basis with the fund for the next year.
One fund administrator will join Aberdeen with the fund but the move leaves Horlick, dubbed “superwoman” for her ability to combine a fund management career with raising a family, with few other assets to manage.
The news brings an end to a long-running spat between Horlick, who floated Bramdean Alternatives in 1997, and its investors.
The largest shareholder Elsina is controlled by Vincent Tchenguiz, the property entrepreneur who launched an ultimately successful coup to oust the board of Bramdean Alternatives and take control of the trust in
the summer.
This followed an attempt by Horlick to bid for the fund using investment vehicle Petersfield Asset Management. Fund chairman Jonathan Carr is one of the directors who was appointed in the summer.
He said: “In the five months since the current board was appointed we have considered a wide range of options for the future of the company and I am delighted to say that consensus has been reached with our principal shareholders over the appointment of Aberdeen.
“We believe that the company will benefit from being rebranded and that Aberdeen will be well placed to manage the company’s portfolio successfully.”
He also played down the split with Bramdean, adding: “We would also like to take this opportunity to wish all at Bramdean every success in the future.”
Shares in Bramdean rose 3p or 6.7% on the news to close at 48p. They had fallen 28.6% over the last year.
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