Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – PriorNilsson Idea has been named the “Hedge Fund of the Year” at the annual “Årets Fonder” event organized by fund platform Fondmarknaden.se. The “Årets Hedgefond 2019” award was one of the ten awards handed out at the annually-held event that recognizes the best funds among the 1,800 funds available on Fondmarknaden.se.

“We are happy that our focused stock-picking strategy, combined with added protection in volatile markets, has proven to give investors good risk-adjusted returns over different market conditions,” Torgny Prior, who co-founded Stockholm-based asset manager PriorNilsson Fonder with Per Olof Nilsson in 2002, tells HedgeNordic. “Large holdings in Skanska and Klövern developed well during the year and contributed to the performance in 2019,” he adds.

There are about 60 Swedish and foreign hedge funds available on Fondmarknaden.se. The long/short equity fund managed by Torgny Prior and Martin Lindqvist delivered an annualized return of 11.5 percent in the past three years. PriorNilsson Idea gained around 18 percent last year after returning seven percent in 2018 and nearly ten percent in 2017. Commenting on PriorNilsson Idea’s win in the “hedge fund” category, Fondmarknaden.se writes that the PriorNilsson fund is “a clear example of how genuine active management can deliver returns in both strong and weak markets.”

The Nordic Hedge Index includes 91 Swedish hedge funds, but not all of them are available on Fondmarknaden.se. PriorNilsson Idea, which employs a long-biased long/short equity strategy that focuses on strategic allocation and stock picking, was one of the best-performing members of the Nordic Hedge Index in the past three years. The fund is the second-best performing Swedish hedge fund in the past three years, trailing only Rhenman Healthcare Equity L/S.