Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – David Bhatti, a shipping analyst at SEB, has joined Simon Roksund Johannessen in managing energy-focused market-neutral equity fund KLP Alfa Global Energi as portfolio manager. Torkel Aaberg, who has been managing KLP Alfa Global Energi alongside Johannessen since the beginning of 2015, left KLP Kapitalforvaltning earlier this year after more than 13 years as portfolio manager at the firm.

David Bhatti joined KLP as co-portfolio manager of KLP Alfa Global Energi on August 1 from Oslo-based SEB, where he worked as a shipping analyst for three years. Before SEB, Bhatti worked as a senior analyst at London-based CF Partners Opportunities Fund, as an equity research analyst at RS Platou Markets – an investment bank with core focus on offshore and shipping, as well as a senior equity research analyst at Nordea Markets for five years. He started his career as an equity research intern at Fondsfinans in January 2008.

KLP Alfa Global Energi, one of the two hedge funds under the umbrella of Norwegian pension provider KLP, is a market-neutral equity fund specializing in the energy sector, taking positions in all parts of the energy value chain, from exploration and production, to transport, transformation and consumption. KLP Alfa Global Energi has enjoyed strong performance in the past few years, with the fund achieving its best ever annual performance in 2020 with a return of 23.9 percent. Up 4.7 percent in the first seven months of 2022, the fund has achieved an annualized return of 15.8 percent over the past three years to reach a three-year Sharpe ratio of 1.98.

“Torkel and I have worked together since the beginning of 2015 and have had a stable return since then,” Johannessen commented on the fund’s performance back in late 2020. “We take risks on things we believe in, normally taking risks with expected returns between 5-10 percent a year,” he continued. KLP Alfa Global Energi had only one down year since the duo started working together at the beginning of 2015.