Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Three Nordic funds have been handed out winning trophies at last week’s awards ceremony of the With Intelligence EuroHedge Awards 2021 in London. Borea Høyrente, OAM Absolute Return Fund and STORM Bond Fund, all based out of Norway, received recognition for strong risk-adjusted performance on 17 March at the JW Marriott Grosvenor House in London.

The EuroHedge Awards aims to recognize and celebrate the best risk-adjusted performers in the European hedge fund industry, with the initial nominations and eventual winners decided by a quantitative process that focuses on Sharpe ratios and absolute returns. The quantitative process aims to reflect two primary objectives of hedge funds: manage volatility and deliver positive returns for investors. The funds that achieved the highest returns among the nominated funds in their respective categories, so long as they were also within 25 percent of the best Sharpe ratios in their nominated peer groups, were designated as winners.

“Against the backdrop of uncertain markets, a global pandemic and geopolitical and macroeconomic turbulence, many hedge funds have delivered exceptional returns,” commented Will Wainewright, Editor at EuroHedge. As is customary, some of these strong-performing hedge funds were from the Nordics.

Winner: Borea Høyrente

Borea Asset Management’s fixed-income hedge fund, Borea Høyrente, won the “Fixed Income” category at the EuroHedge Awards 2021. Borea Høyrente, managed Borea CIO Willy Helleland  and portfolio manager Peer Hastrup Thorsheim, was last year’s best-performing fixed-income hedge fund within the Nordic Hedge Index with a full-year return of 14.4 percent. The fund has generated an annualized return of 7.5 percent since launching in early 2012 through the end of February this year to achieve an inception-to-date Sharpe ratio of 0.84.

“We do not say no thanks to another first place. Borea Høyrente climbed to the top of the podium during the EuroHedge Awards in London, in the class «Fixed Income».”

“We do not say no thanks to another first place. Borea Høyrente climbed to the top of the podium during the EuroHedge Awards in London, in the class «Fixed Income»,” writes portfolio manager Magnus Vie Sundal on LinkedIn. “Incredibly nice that the good results that Peer and Willy deliver are recognized abroad (for the second time in six months),” Sundal adds. In late 2021, Borea Høyrente also won the “Fixed Income: Over $100m” award category at the HFM EuroHedge Emerging Manager Awards.

Winner: OAM Absolute Return Fund

A week after winning at the 2022 Investors Choice Awards, Oslo-based energy-focused OAM Absolute Return Fund has also won the “Emerging Manager & Smaller Fund – Equity Strategies” category at the EuroHedge Awards. The fund managed by Harald James Otterhaug ended 2021 up 45.1 percent after booking a full-year advance of 50.9 percent in 2020. The strong performance in the past two years has brought the fund’s annualized return since launching in late 2005 to 11.3 percent. The fund is up 3.3 percent in the first two months of 2022.

OAM Absolute Return has also been nominated in the “Best Nordic Hedge Fund Overall” and “Best Nordic Equity Hedge Fund” categories at this year’s edition of the Nordic Hedge Award. The nominees were selected using a quantitative model focused on a set of metrics that includes last year’s absolute performance, relative performance in 2021, Sharpe ratio over the past 36 months, absolute performance over the past 36 months, and skewness over the same period as a measure of downside risk.

Winner: STORM Bond Fund

STORM Bond Fund, a Nordic high-yield fund that is not a member of the Nordic Hedge Index, won the “UCITS – Macro, Fixed Income & Relative Value” award category at the EureHedge Awards 2021. STORM Bond Fund employs a selective fundamental bottom-up approach targeting attractive risk-adjusted returns while protecting the downside by building a diversified portfolio of Nordic quality bonds with attractive relative pricing, appealing implied valuations, and sound credit metrices. The fund returned 13.6 percent last year.

“Proud to announce that Storm Capital Management AS and Storm Bond Fund yesterday won the category “UCITS – Macro, Fixed Income & Relative Value” in the prestigious EuroHedge Awards 2021.”

“Proud to announce that Storm Capital Management AS and Storm Bond Fund yesterday won the category “UCITS – Macro, Fixed Income & Relative Value” in the prestigious EuroHedge Awards 2021 arranged by HFM Connect,” Morten Eivindssøn Astrup, founding partner at Storm Capital Management, comments on LinkedIn. “Thank you. This is a great recognition of our team efforts and results.”