- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -

Related

Calling it Quits

Industry Report

- Advertisement -

Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – After spending many years at one of Norway’s leading investment banks, Oslo-based money managers Kent Torbjørnsen and Ole Christian Presterud joined forces to launch a multi-strategy hedge fund in March of last year. Despite getting off to a great start with a 20 percent advance in March alone, the duo relaunched a lower-risk, less-volatile version of the fund towards the end of 2020 following an ill-timed bet against equity markets. Soon after that, Torbjørnsen and Presterud decided to close down both the fund and the investment management company.

“Unfortunately, Polar Asset Management has decided to close down both the investment fund Polar Value and the management company Polar Asset Management,” Kent Torbjørnsen, the CEO of Polar Asset Management, tells HedgeNordic. “Polar Value was closed in February and the fund capital was paid out to the customers,” he adds. “The background for the decision was that the total assets under management became too low to be able to defend a sensible operation of the company.”

“Unfortunately, Polar Asset Management has decided to close down both the investment fund Polar Value and the management company Polar Asset Management.”

Both Polar Value and the higher-risk Polar Multi Asset relied on a combination of technical analysis of individual securities, bottom-down fundamental analysis and the portfolio management team’s own financial market experience to generate high uncorrelated returns across several asset classes. The investment approach involved shorter-term investments across currencies, fixed income, commodities and equities that could last just a few days.

“The background for the decision was that the total assets under management became too low to be able to defend a sensible operation of the company.”

Polar Multi Asset gained 20.5 percent in March of last year, its first month of operations, and delivered a cumulative return of 6.4 percent through the end of October when the fund was closed down to launch its lower-risk version under the “Polar Value” name. Polar Value, meanwhile, generated a cumulative return of 9.9 percent since launching in November through its closure in February this year.

“We must acknowledge that multi-asset funds have been difficult to sell in competition with a huge number of equity funds and their salesforce.”

“As a fund manager, we knew that there is extensive competition for investment capital, but here in Norway, we must acknowledge that multi-asset funds have been difficult to sell in competition with a huge number of equity funds and their salesforce,” Torbjørnsen comments on the decision to close Polar Value and the fund management company, Polar Asset Management. The duo’s desire to provide a new multi-asset, multi-strategy fund that would act as a diversifying pillar in many Norwegian investors’ relatively undiversified portfolios has come to an end, for now.

Subscribe to HedgeBrev, HedgeNordic’s weekly newsletter, and never miss the latest news!

Our newsletter is sent once a week, every Friday.

Eugeniu Guzun
Eugeniu Guzun
Eugeniu Guzun serves as a data analyst responsible for maintaining and gatekeeping the Nordic Hedge Index, and as a journalist covering the Nordic hedge fund industry for HedgeNordic. Eugeniu completed his Master’s degree at the Stockholm School of Economics in 2018. Write to Eugeniu Guzun at eugene@hedgenordic.com

Latest Articles

Machine Learning Helps Lynx Constellation in Tough Trend Markets

Lynx Asset Management is best known for its flagship trend-following strategy, the Lynx Program, which celebrated its 25th anniversary this year. In late 2019,...

Rising Adoption of Quantitative Investment Strategies Among Nordic Investors

From a high-level perspective, there is a clear trend of increasing adoption of quantitative investment strategies (QIS) among Nordic institutional investors, either through the...

EU Plans Stress Test for Hedge Funds and Non-Bank Firms

European regulators are planning a stress test to identify vulnerabilities beyond the traditional banking sector, focusing on less regulated entities such as hedge funds,...

ALCUR Fonder Continues Hiring Spree

Following two earlier additions this year, ALCUR Fonder continues to expand its portfolio management team at a notable pace. The Stockholm-based hedge fund boutique...

Nordic Private Markets Modernize with Data-Centric Trade Lifecycle Automation

By Anders Stengaard Jensen at Indus Valley Partner: In recent years, asset managers in Nordic countries have accelerated efforts to modernize trade operations, particularly...

Norwegian Hedge Fund Industry Sees Major Boost with New Launch

The Swedish and Danish hedge fund industries remain closely matched in size, with Denmark recently edging ahead of Sweden. While still less than half...

Allocator Interviews

In-Depth: High Yield

Voices

Request for Proposal

- Advertisement -
HedgeNordic
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.