Steel Partners, the activist hedge fund group controlled by Warren Lichtenstein, appears to have won its legal battle to convert its flagship fund into a publicly listed industrial holding company.

The New York-based group said at the turn of the year that it would convert its $1.2bn (£727m, €854m) Steel Partners II fund into a holding company after receiving redemption requests for 38 per cent of the assets. It argued that the nature of the fund’s holdings, typically large, often controlling, stakes in both quoted and private companies, did not lend themselves to quick disposal, even at firesale prices.