Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Pareto Asset Management has announced the merger of its modest-sized Nordic-focused long/short equity fund, Pareto Nordic Omega, into the more successful and globally oriented Pareto Total. This decision follows a decline in assets under management, which dropped to about NOK 40 million this year from over NOK 640 million in mid-2021. In a separate move earlier this year, its UCITS-structured sister fund, Pareto Nordic Alpha, also underwent a merger into long-only equity fund Pareto Nordic Equity.
“At the extraordinary general meeting of Pareto Nordic Omega held on 6 December 2023, shareholders voted in favour of the merger between Pareto Nordic Omega (merging fund) and Pareto Total (receiving fund),” announces Pareto Asset Management. The merger is scheduled to take effect on January 2, 2024. The closed Pareto Nordic Alpha and soon-to-be-closed Pareto Nordic Omega have been under the management of Christian Nygaard and Ole Jørgen Grøneng, employing a long/short approach to invest in the Nordic equity market. The duo continues to run the long-only equity fund Pareto Nordic Equity, which oversees over NOK 1.1 billion in assets under management.
“At the extraordinary general meeting of Pareto Nordic Omega held on 6 December 2023, shareholders voted in favour of the merger between Pareto Nordic Omega (merging fund) and Pareto Total (receiving fund).”
Pareto Nordic Omega is poised to merge into Pareto Total, a long-biased equity long/short fund with a focus on global large- and mega-cap stocks. Managed by Bård Johannessen and Oddmund Enæs, the fund seeks to invest in attractive risk-reward opportunities among the biggest of all mega-caps, maintaining “anything from 15 to 25 long positions and between zero and eight short positions,” with an average net market exposure between 110 and 115 percent. Pareto Total oversees NOK 8.06 billion or about €689 million in assets under management.
Pareto Total has generated an annualized return of 12.2 percent since launching at the beginning of 2016, recording a gain of about 32 percent in the first 11 months of 2023. This performance follows a temporary setback in 2022 when the fund incurred a loss of 11.2 percent. In comparison, Pareto Nordic Omega achieved a year-to-date gain of about 10.0 percent through the end of November, following a loss of 19.4 percent in the previous year. Over the long term, Pareto Nordic Omega has delivered an annualized return of 7.1 percent since its launch in late 2005. This merger marks the closure of one of Norway’s oldest-running hedge funds after 18 years in operation.
