Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Michal Danielewicz and Jens Larsson of thematic-focused asset manager St. Petri Capital have long been pursuing an investment process focusing on identifying and capturing returns from paradigm shifts. After successfully running its thematic long/short equity fund since early 2018, St. Petri Capital welcomes Claus H. Johansen as portfolio manager and partner to launch a long-only equity fund focusing on the paradigm shift in healthcare.

“With great humility and exuberant joy, I would like to announce that I am joining St. Petri Capital as Partner and Portfolio Manager,” says Claus H. Johansen (pictured), who worked as a healthcare-focused portfolio manager at Danske Bank for nearly 20 years. Johansen has joined St. Petri Capital to launch a global long-only healthcare fund investing in companies offering products and services that address the significant shifts in health needs arising from demographic changes.

The society has increasingly channelled attention and resources on tackling the climate crisis and the more recent energy crisis. While these crises need urgent preparedness and response, “there is also a huge problem within the healthcare sector that faces a huge burden that will increasingly grow in the next ten years in a lot of countries due to demographic changes,” accroding to Johansen. The share of the population aged above 65 years is increasing in many parts of the globe, which will create a “tremendous burden on the global healthcare system.”

“There is also a huge problem within the healthcare sector that faces a huge burden that will increasingly grow in the next ten years in a lot of countries due to demographic changes.”

Expected to launch in the second half of 2023, St. Petri Capital’s Global Healthcare Fund will seek to invest in companies that provide solutions to patients, the society, and the healthcare ecosystem. “The fund will focus on the whole healthcare value chain, starting from diagnosis and prevention to monitoring of patients and treatment,” explains Johansen. The security selection process will seek to identify profitable businesses with management teams that are “excellent at allocating capital, but more importantly, that provide solutions benefiting the patients and the broader society,” according to Johansen. “We will invest in companies that have built up for many years a very significant position that enable them to launch highly differentiated treatments or products.”

Applying St. Petri’s Approach to Capturing Change

The healthcare-focused fund managed by Johansen will rely on St. Petri’s time-tested approach of understanding and capturing change. “Just like St. Petri has been doing so far, we will start by identifying what is the change that is happening, why the structural change is happening and which companies can benefit from this change,” explains Johansen. Understanding change is just one of the three elements of St. Petri’s investment process: change, expectations, and timing.

“Just like St. Petri has been doing so far, we will start by identifying what is the change that is happening, why the structural change is happening and which companies can benefit from this change.”

“We then look at what is actually expected in the market, what market expectations are priced in a company’s stock price,” continues Johansen, who used to work with St. Petri’s co-founder, Jens Larsson, at Danske Bank. “We also evaluate the timing of our investments, is it a good time to step in?,” according to Johansen. “We ask ourselves if it makes sense to own a company for three to five years. But while we have a long-term focus, change is happening quite fast these days. We are not looking to simply buy and hold with our eyes closed.”

St. Petri Capital’s Global Healthcare Fund will cater to both retail and institutional investors looking for an attractive financial return from investments in global healthcare-focused companies. Johansen also wants the fund to reach a size that enables investments in smaller businesses in Denmark planning to make the step into the public stock exchanges. “We have a lot of venture funds that invest in early-stage, mid-stage in tech and digital health companies. But there is no big fund that can really support crossovers,” Johansen points out. “If we can attract enough capital, we will be able to support potential listings of Danish healthcare companies on the Nasdaq Copenhagen exchange.” But first of all, “we want to launch a fund that can provide an attractive financial return to investors.”