Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Sixteen Nordic hedge funds have been shortlisted for the 2020 HFM European Emerging Manager Awards across 15 categories. The awards ceremony, to be held virtually on November 17, aims to honour the best performing smaller and emerging European hedge funds across a variety of strategies and asset sizes.

The winners are selected based on annualized returns and Sharpe ratios for the 12-month period to the end of June 2020. The minimum fund asset size for meeting the eligibility criteria for joining the HFM European Emerging Manager Awards is $20 million and the maximum fund size is $500 million. The awards will recognize winners across 15 categories as leading performers in Europe.

“Equity” Award Categories

Three Nordic hedge funds were shortlisted in the “European Equity: Under $100m” award category. CARN Long Short, Pareto Nordic Alpha and Proxy Renewable Long/Short Energy will compete with four other nominees for the same award. Energy transition-focused Proxy Renewable Long/Short Energy advanced 47.6 percent in the 12-month period through the end of September, while Oslo-based long/short fundamental equity fund CARN Long Short gained 39.2 percent during the same period.

The two hedge funds under the umbrella of Swedish asset manager Alcur Fonder – Alcur Select and Alcur – were nominated in the “European Equity: Over $100m” category. Alcur Select, a long-biased small-cap-focused equity hedge fund, gained 60.6 percent over the past 12 months. Long-biased equity long/short fund Pareto Total, managed by Bård Johannessen and Oddmund Nicolaisen Enæs out of Oslo, was shortlisted in the “Global Equity: Over $100m” category.

Stockholm-based Thyra Hedge of Sentat Asset Management, meanwhile, was nominated in the “Global Equity: Under $100m” category. Market-neutral equity fund KLP Alfa Global Energi, one of the two hedge funds under the umbrella of Norwegian pension provider KLP, will compete with four other nominees for the main award in the “Equity Market Neutral & Quantitative Strategies” category.

“Fixed-Income” and Other Award Categories

Copenhagen-based fixed-income hedge fund CABA Hedge, which oversees over DKK 1 billion in assets under management or over €140 million as of the end of September), was shortlisted in the “Fixed income: Over $100m” category. Excalibur, a non-directional fixed-income macro hedge fund that returned over ten percent in the past 12 months, was nominated in the “Fixed income: Under $100m” category with two other funds. Hamiltonian Global Credit Opportunities Fund managed by Sean George out of Stockholm was shortlisted in the “Credit: Under $100m” category.

Volt Diversified Alpha, a diversified systematic trading vehicle that uses machine learning and fundamental data to capture price moves across markets, was the only member of the NHX CTA sub-index to be nominated at the 2020 HFM European Emerging Manager Awards. The fund steered by CIO Patrik Säfvenblad, which is up 35.6 percent this year, was nominated in the “CTA: Under $100m” category. Precious metal-focused Pacific Precious, which recently changed its name into Atlant Precious, was shortlisted in the “Commodities” award category.

Activist investor Accendo and Formue Nord Markedsneutral, a niche hedge fund offering debt and other financing solutions to smaller companies in the Nordics, were both shortlisted in the “Event Driven” category with two other nominees. Accendo gained 77.7 percent over the past 12 months, whereas the market-neutral Formue Nord Markedsneutral advanced 25.3 percent over the same time span. Nordic Cross Asset Management’s multi-strategy hedge fund, Nordic Cross Stable Return, was shortlisted in the “Multi-Strategy” category. The fund is up 22.3 percent year-to-date through the end of September.

Last Year’s Nordic Winners

Three Nordic hedge funds collected awards at last year’s edition of the HFM European Emerging Manager Awards, which was held in London in late November of last year. Danske Invest Fixed Income Global Value, Formue Nord Markedsneutral and Origo Quest 1 were the winners in their respective award categories.

The full list of nominees at the 2020 HFM European Emerging Manager Awards can be viewed here.