Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – With Intelligence announced the winners of the HFM European Performance Awards 2023, presenting four titles to three Norwegian hedge funds. Borea Kreditt received an award in a “Newcomer” category, Svelland Global Trading Fund was crowned as the best commodities fund, while OAM Absolute Return Fund received two award titles for its solid shorter and longer-term performance.

The unveiling of the 2023 HFM European Performance Awards winners took place at the Natural History Museum, London on October 12. The winners were determined by a panel of judges consisting of institutional and private investors, as well as investment consultants. The judging criteria encompass various factors, including absolute performance, standard deviation of returns, and outperformance relative to a relevant benchmark index. The judges also considered relative assets under management, three and five-year track records, the nature of investment strategies, other supporting materials, and professional knowledge about shortlisted funds.

Newcomer

Borea Kreditt, one of the two funds of Borea Asset Management that earned nominations at the 2023 HFM European Performance Awards, emerged as the winner in the “Credit – newcomer” category. Borea Kreditt employs a strategy akin to that of Borea’s longest-running and largest fund, Borea Høyrente, with a particular focus on higher risk-reward opportunities in issues below NOK 500 million.

Both funds specialize in exploiting the ‘credit spread puzzle,’ a phenomenon where relatively safe companies (BB-rated equivalents) have to pay a higher credit spread on their loans than can be justified by expected losses and other factors. Launched in late 2021, Borea Kreditt has generated an annualized return of 9.6 percent in the two years since its inception.

Best Commodities Fund

Svelland Global Trading Fund, a commodities-focused hedge fund run by founder and CIO Tor Svelland alongside portfolio managers Andreas Mattsson and Ara Levonian, secured the top spot in the “Commodities fund” award category. Svelland’s fund previously received recognition as the “Best Nordic Hedge Fund Overall” for 2022 at the Nordic Hedge Award at the beginning of the year.

Svelland Global Trading Fund was the Nordic hedge fund industry’s best-performing fund in 2022 with a return of about 47 percent and advanced a further 6.8 percent in the first nine months of 2023. Operating under a fundamental, absolute return trading strategy focused on commodity investing, Svelland Global Trading Fund has achieved the highest performance among Nordic hedge funds over the past six years with an annualized return of about 21 percent.

Oslo Asset Management (OAM)

Energy-focused long/short equity fund OAM Absolute Return clinched accolades in two categories, “Global equity under $500m” and “Global equity long-term performance (5 years).” After winning the same award for long-term performance at last year’s edition of the HFM European Performance Awards, Harald James Otterhaug told HedgeNordic: “Since short-term investment performance often can be driven by chance and risk concentration, we particularly appreciate when our long-term investment strategy is acknowledged.” Following a return of 27.5 percent in 2022 and a further gain of 30.2 percent over the first three quarters of 2023, OAM Absolute Return Fund has, once again, secured an award for long-term performance.

The long/short equity fund managed out of Oslo currently stands as this year’s best-performing hedge fund in the Nordic region. This year’s return follows gains of 27.5 percent in 2022, 45.1. percent in 2021, 50.1 percent in 2020, and an annual loss of 21 percent in 2019. OAM Absolute Return Fund has gained an annualized 17.6 percent over the rolling five-year period and has delivered a return of 13.3 percent per year since its inception in late 2005.