Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Formuepleje Merkur, the fund of funds managed by Danish asset manager Formuepleje, is in the process of merging into the asset manager’s oldest investment vehicle, Formuepleje Safe. According to a statement, Formuepleje Merkur is set to be merged into the other vehicle because of insufficient assets under management, with the fund of funds overseeing DKK 52 million as of the end of April.
Formuepleje Merkur aimed to achieve attractive returns over the long term that do not fluctuate with equities and bonds by allocating to Formuepleje funds, externally-managed vehicles and other products. After a strategy reshuffle several years ago, Formuepleje Merkur sought to deliver uncorrelated returns by predominantly allocating capital to four main groups of strategies: alternative products seeking to generate market-independent returns, alpha-generating strategies, strategies capitalizing on market imperfections, and opportunistic strategies.
Managed by Leif Hasager and Otto Friedrichsen since late 2013, Formuepleje Merkur gained 10.9 percent in 2019, its best year since mid-2013. The Formuepleje fund was the best-performing fund of hedge funds in the Nordics in 2019, earning the fund a podium place in the “Best Nordic Fund of Hedge Funds” category at the 2019 Nordic Hedge Award. Formuepleje Merkur stood on the podium at the Nordic Hedge Award for two consecutive years, in 2018 and 2019. The fund lost 5.3 percent last year and gained six percent in the first four months of 2021.
The Formuepleje fund of funds will be merged into Formuepleje Safe based on their net asset values on May 7. Formuepleje Safe, a multi-asset fund maintaining leveraged portfolios of equities and bonds in addition to a market-neutral equity allocation, is Formuepleje’s oldest investment product that dates back to 1988. The vehicle oversees DKK 8.74 billion as of the end of April this year and has delivered an annualized return of 12.3 percent since May of 1988.
