Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Atlant Opportunity, one of the market-neutral funds under the umbrella of Stockholm-based asset manager Atlant Fonder, has been named the “Best Hedge Fund of the Year 2019” by Swedish business magazine Privata Affärer. The fund generated an annualized return of 5.5 percent since launching in January 2016 and achieved an inception-to-date Sharpe ratio of 2.2. “We are very proud and excited to receive this award,” comments Michael Ekelund (pictured), Atlant Fonder’s CEO.
As the name suggests, Atlant Opportunity seeks to identify and capitalize on opportunities. The fund can invest in corporate bonds, index derivatives, equity derivatives, individual stocks, among other things. Just like Atlant Fonder’s other market-neutral funds, Atlant Opportunity puts a strong emphasis on protecting capital. The fund, therefore, rarely holds significant positions in single names. As Anders Kullberg, the founder of Atlant Fonder, tells Privata Affärer, “90 percent of our focus is on minimizing the consequences of incorrect decisions.”
Atlant Opportunity aims to generate an annual return that exceeds the yield on the 90-day Swedish treasury bills by at least five percent with considerably lower volatility than in the Swedish stock market. Despite gaining only 3.3 percent last year, Atlant Opportunity has proven itself in both up and down markets. The fund returned 5.2 percent in 2018, when most investors and fund managers lost money across the board, after gaining 5.2 percent and 8.1 percent in 2017 and 2016, respectively.
Atlant Opportunity has grown considerably since launching at the beginning of 2016, particularly during 2019. The fund’s assets under management increased from about SEK 60 million at the end of 2017 to SEK 353 million at the end of 2018 and SEK 924 million at the end of last year. Atlant Opportunity currently oversees more than SEK 1 billion in assets under management.
