Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Soon after two newly launched hedge funds managed by Danske Bank Asset Management were added to the Nordic Hedge Index (NHX), an older hedge fund managed by the Danish asset manager also joined the family of Nordic hedge funds. Danske Invest Eastern Europe Absolute, a long/short hedge fund investing in companies operating or domiciled in Eastern Europe or Turkey, is the newest addition of the NHX.
Danske Invest Eastern Europe Absolute mainly invests in a focused selection of long and short positions in Eastern European and Turkish equities. Specifically, the fund invests at least two-thirds of net assets in equities and equity-related securities issued by companies that are domiciled or do most of their business in Eastern Europe or Turkey. A small portion of capital can be allocated to equities and equity-related securities issued by companies domiciled in countries bordering Eastern European countries. The fund’s management team employs a long/short strategy, taking long exposure to equities anticipated to appreciate in value and initiating short positions either to capitalize on expected security price declines or offset the volatility of its long positions. The long/short fund aims to generate absolute returns and can leverage up using derivatives, maintaining an expected level of leverage between 90 percent and 200 percent.
Danske Invest Eastern Europe Absolute was launched in October 2011 under the name Danske Invest Europe Absolute, before the then Europe-focused fund changed its name, investment strategy and investment team at the beginning of September 2017. Despite delivering satisfactory long-term results, the original fund exhibited a higher-than-expected degree of correlation with the stock market. Starting from September 2017, the fund’s focus shifted towards Eastern European equity markets in an attempt to produce uncorrelated returns. Following the change in the geographical region of the fund’s investments from Europe to Eastern Europe, Danske changed the name of the fund to Eastern Europe Absolute. The fund is build on Danske’s successful Eastern European long-only strategy, which has outperformed its benchmark for nine consecutive years before costs.
Danske Invest Eastern Europe Absolute is currently managed by chief portfolio manager Morten Lund Ligaard (pictured), who has served as the Head of Eastern European Equities at Danske since the beginning of 2014. Ligaard also worked as senior portfolio manager for Danske’s specialized Eastern European team from 2001 to 2013. Before joining Danske in 2001, he spent one year at PG Bank and worked at Nykredit from 1997 to 2000.
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