The worst fears around the wind-down of Hydrogen Capital Growth (HGEN) have begun to be realised after the collapse of Bramble Energy, one of the investment company’s largest holdings.

In a statement after markets closed last night, HGEN said Bramble, a hydrogen fuel cell producer in which the company is a 12.5% shareholder, had appointed an administrator.

Its £11m holding, representing 9% of the fund’s net asset value, would be written off, it said.

HGEN said it had recently become apparent that Bramble had failed to secure fresh funding from investors without which it was unable to operate viably.

“As such Bramble progressed to an accelerated sale process for its entire business, which was run by an independent adviser. Whilst a number of parties showed initial interest, the Bramble board of directors see no reasonable prospect of a solvent transaction. As such, the Bramble board has today filed notice to appoint an administrator.”

HGEN’s board of directors said it was “extremely disappointed” at the outcome as Bramble’s technology was being assessed for use by Toyota.

Investors had been braced for bad news after HGEN shares were suspended in September as its recently appointed fund managers at RWC struggled to ascertain the valuation of its investments forcing a delay in its half-year results.

RWC was appointed in July when the board terminated the contract with its founding fund manager HydrogenOne Capital and announced it would implement a managed wind-down.

At their suspension on 18 September, HGEN was valued at £33m with the shares having lost three quarters of their value over the previous five years.