Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Alcur Fonder’s first hedge fund, Alcur, has been named “Hedge Fund of the Year” by Swedish business magazine Privata Affärer for a third consecutive year. Alcur, which employs a low-net equity strategy, ended 2022 in positive territory at 8.2 percent to reach an annualized return of 10.6 percent over the past three years.

Alcur’s strong performance in recent years is “slightly above our own goals,” according to Johan Klevby, who manages the fund with help from Erik Eikeland, Wilhelm Gruvberg and Mikael Holm. “Both 2020 and 2021 were very special stock market years, first the pandemic, followed by strong stimulus and extreme liquidity with exceptionally low interest rates,” Klevby tells Privata Affärer. “By the end of 2021, valuations reached a level we hadn’t seen in a long time.” The difficult market environment in 2022 didn’t slow Alcur down.

The low-net long/short equity fund advanced 8.2 percent in 2022, with gains from short positions outpacing the losses incurred in the long book. “That difference is the key to the return during the year,” wrote the Alcur Fonder team in its latest letter to investors. “Win for the third year in a row for the low-risk fund that rose steadily in both the rally and stock market crash,” comments Privata Affärer’s jury board on the decision to grant Alcur the “Årets Hedgefond” award for a third consecutive year.

The distinction is “a great tribute to our portfolio managers Erik Eikeland, Wilhelm Gruvberg, Mikael Holm and Johan Klevby as well as our sharp analyst Oscar Karlsson, who continuously work to create attractive risk-adjusted returns for our clients,” according to Alcur Fonder’s COO, Petter Mattsson. Alcur has generated an annualized return of 5.9 percent since launching in January 2007 and an annualized return of 8.7 percent over the past five years.