By Rowena Mason Last Updated: 8:47PM BST 01 May 2009  The City is braced for one of the most colourful battles of the year. Mr Tchenguiz, whose investment vehicle Elsina owns 28.7pc of the fund, claims that more than 50pc of shareholders are behind his attempt to oust the board chaired by Brian Larcombe, former chief executive of 3i.  Elsina has called an extraordinary general meeting for next week so that investors can vote on whether to overthrow the board, in a move that could lead to the liquidation of the fund that Ms Horlick set up two years ago.  Ms Horlick, who manages the fund but is not on the board, could lose control of the vehicle if three new directors nominated by Elsina – Jonathan Carr, David Copperwaite and Mark Tucker – review its investment strategy.  Mr Tchenguiz injected £38m into Bramdean Alternatives when it floated in July 2007, but it appears that relations have since soured. The share price of Bramdean Alternative has fallen 45pc to 55p and its net asset value has fallen 30pc to $181.7m (£121.9m).  The dramatic intervention comes the day after Bramdean Alternatives announced that it had received an approach regarding a possible takeover – sending its share price up 20pc.  There had been speculation that Ms Horlick's investors were unimpressed that approximately 10pc of the fund was placed with US fraudster Bernard Madoff. However, Elsina claims it first raised concerns a year ago about the fund's investments in certain poorly performing private equity funds, including a fund run by Terra Firma, the investment company led by Guy Hands, which owns music company EMI.  "Elsina's principal concerns about the status quo centre on the illiquidity of the company's shares and over the commitment within the company's private equity and specialty funds portfolio," said a spokesman for Elsina.  A spokesman for Bramdean Alternatives cast doubt on whether investors would vote to remove Mr Larcombe, Ceasar Anquillare, executive chairman of Winchester Capital, Malcolm Barton, a former executive at Robert Fleming, Michael Buckley, the former chief executive of Allied Irish Banks and Nicholas Moss, founder of a Guernsey investment trust.  Ms Horlick was first thrown into the spotlight after she campaigned to get her job back at Deutsche Morgan Grenfell after a row about defecting to a rival bank. She later launched fund manager SG Asset Management, and then founded Bramdean Asset Management, before floating Bramdean Alternatives in July 2007.  Last night she was unavailable for comment, but Bramdean Alternatives issued a statement insisting that the current board was best placed to act in the best interest of shareholders.  "The Board has, given current circumstances, reservations as to the ability of the new Directors proposed by Elsina to be able to independently consider the options available to the Company," the fund said.
Vincent Tchenguiz, the property entrepreneur, is attempting a boardroom coup    at Bramdean Alternatives, the quoted investment fund founded and managed by    City "superwoman" Nicola Horlick.