Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – After providing a new breath of life for Celina Fonder and Celina Hedgefond in particular, Per Johansson is joining Didner & Gerge as a co-portfolio manager of its flagship equity fund. Starting in early January 2023, Johansson will manage Didner & Gerge’s oldest and largest fund alongside Simon Peterson, who has been managing the SEK 37 billion vehicle since 2019.

“The equity fund is an iconic fund with an outstanding historical return,” comments Johansson. The task of managing this fund is “one of the most interesting challenges one can have in this industry,” according to the Bodenholm founder. He will join Didner & Gerge from Celina Fonder, where he has served as CIO since early 2022 prior to the takeover by Case Group. Johansson and a select group of former Bodenhom employees joined forces to launch Boden Capital in late 2020 before all joined Celina Fonder in February 2022. Johansson’s and his team’s mission and project to help improve performance and value creation at Celina Fonder ended when the firm was sold to Case, according to Johansson.

“The equity fund is an iconic fund with an outstanding historical return and managing it is one of the most interesting challenges one can have in this industry.”

Upon taking on his role as CIO at Celina, Johansson joined the existing portfolio management teams of low-risk multi-strategy hedge fund Celina Hedgefond and Celina’s long-only equity funds. After years of sluggish performance, Celina Hedgefond advanced 4.8 percent year-to-date through the end of November, reflecting solid performance from the long/short equity leg managed by Johansson. The hedge fund’s performance was good but so was the performance of the long-only equity funds and credit funds, according to Johansson. “Shorting is fun, but it’s a young man’s game in my view and I look forward to building long-term value employing a long-only approach with a proper long-term orientation,” he tells HedgeNordic on his new journey at Didner & Gerge.

“I am happy that Per will start with us and manage the Aktiefonden together with me,” comments Simon Peterson, who has been running Didner & Gerge Aktiefond since 2019. “Per has a solid interest in shares and extensive experience in management, and we complement each other well,” he continues. “Didner & Gerge’s investment philosophy is based on active management, thorough in-house analysis, and a long-term investment horizon. It fits well with Per’s background and I look forward to a good collaboration between us.”

“We believe Per’s drive and strengths in analysis and idea generation will contribute to the fund’s continued positive development.”

“Per is a welcome addition to the management team and we look forward to the fact that these two managers will now be given responsibility for our largest and oldest fund,” says Didner & Gerge’s CEO, Helena Hillström. “We believe Per’s drive and strengths in analysis and idea generation will contribute to the fund’s continued positive development.”