Superwoman slaps a High Court ban on City partners

Former City superwoman Nicola Horlick has never been one to shy away from confrontation.

And just six years after setting up her latest business venture she seems to have dramatically fallen out with her colleagues.

I can reveal she has won a High Court injunction against three associates at her company, rockpool Investments. As a result, they have been banned from holding a meeting at which they planned to change the deeds governing their limited liability partnership.

At the High Court hearing, mr Justice Barling prevented her colleagues — managing partner matt Taylor, head of investment Andrew Green and client services manager elizabeth orbell — from holding the meeting, which had been scheduled for February, until march 22.

The astonishing document has just become public and will fuel speculation about the future of rockpool, which Horlick set up with Taylor and Gary robins in 2012.

mother-of-six Horlick started rockpool to allow investments in private companies through tax-efficient vehicles.

more than £ 250 million has been invested in more than 50 companies, but rockpool’s website warns investors may lose their contributions.

Horlick, right, was often held up as an example of a woman who ‘had it all’, with a family and a high-flying career.

She first hit the headlines in 1997 when investment bank morgan Grenfell suspended her, believing she was planning to leave; she flew to Hamburg accompanied by a large group of journalists, demanding to hold on to her job.

Later, she worked for SG Warburg as she brought up her large brood of children. Her daughter Georgina, 12, tragically died from blood cancer in 1998.

She opened a restaurant named after Georgina, and set up Bramdean Alternatives fund which she ran until she lost control to former friend Vincent Tchenguiz. He ousted her from the board after Bramdean lost $ 20 million of investors’ money in a Ponzi scheme set up by fraudster Bernie madoff in 2008. Horlick’s first marriage to husband Tim ended in divorce in 2005 and she is now married to journalist martin Baker, and lives in Barnes, South London.