Tim Horlick, whose company Ayanda Capital was awarded a £255 million contract for personal protective equipment (PPE) during the pandemic, died this week at London's Royal Trinity Hospice. He was 65 and had fallen ill earlier in the summer, with two of his daughters reportedly at his side.
His death is expected to bring renewed attention to the circumstances surrounding the 2020 contract, which was granted to Ayanda Capital despite the firm's primary specialization in currency trading, private equity, and offshore property, with no previous experience in supplying such goods. At the time, the company's only directors were Horlick and his son-in-law, Nathan Engelbrecht.
The lucrative PPE deal contributed to Ayanda Capital achieving profits of £38 million over two years, even though 50 million of the masks supplied were later deemed faulty. In 2023, it was reported that Horlick had purchased a property in Switzerland, with a friend asserting at the time that the purchase was funded from his personal assets and unrelated to the PPE contract.
However, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) initiated an investigation into income received during the pandemic. In 2024, following Horlick's acquisition of an £8.5 million property in Pimlico, London, he was arrested as part of HMRC's anti-fraud team's inquiry into allegedly unpaid taxes amounting to millions of pounds. A criminal restraint order was subsequently placed on the Pimlico property, preventing its sale. Horlick had reportedly denied any wrongdoing.
Nathan Engelbrecht resigned as a director of Ayanda Capital in 2023. The following year, he purchased a house in Kensington for £7.4 million. Horlick's ex-wife, Nicola Horlick, has not responded to inquiries regarding these developments.