Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – At this year’s EuroHedge Awards 2023 in London on February 29th, two Nordic hedge funds were honored with awards. Among the approximately dozen Nordic hedge funds nominated, the long-biased long/short equity fund Pareto Total and Danske Invest Hedge Fixed Income Relative Value Fund emerged as award recipients.

The EuroHedge Awards, hosted by With Intelligence, aim to honor the best performers in the European hedge fund industry. Nominations and winners are selected based on a combination of Sharpe ratios and absolute returns, reflecting the key objectives of hedge funds: managing volatility and delivering positive returns. At the previous edition of the EuroHedge Awards, three out of the 15 Nordic hedge funds nominated won their respective categories and came home with awards. This year, two of the 14 Nordic nominees were distinguished at the London event on February 29.

Danske Invest Hedge Fixed Income Relative Value Fund

In 2023, fixed-income strategies emerged as standout performers in the Nordic hedge fund industry, with six of the top ten performers in the Nordic Hedge Index belonging to this category. The trio of relative-value fixed-income hedge funds of Danske Bank Asset Management featured among these top performers. One member of the trio, Danske Invest Hedge Fixed Income Relative Value Fund, won the “Fixed-Income” award category at the EuroHedge Awards 2023.

After facing high single-digit or low-teen losses in 2022, all three Danske funds swiftly rebounded in 2023, achieving gains exceeding 20 percent. Danske Invest Fixed Income Relative Value, the winner at the EuroHedge Awards, gained 25 percent in 2023, ranking among the top five best performers in the Nordic Hedge Index. Its younger sibling employing a more global-focused approach, Danske Invest Fixed Income Global Value, achieved a gain of 26.2 percent in 2023.

Although each fund within the trio has its distinctive features, they share a common core philosophy. The oldest and largest among them, Danske Invest Hedge Fixed Income Strategies, focuses on exploiting relative and absolute mis-valuations in the fixed income markets in Scandinavia, the US and Euroland, with a predominant emphasis on Scandinavia. Danske Invest Fixed Income Relative Value, on the other hand, represents a carve-out of the flagship strategy tailored specifically for Swedish investors.

Pareto Total

Pareto Total, a long-biased equity long/short fund managed by Bård Johannessen and Oddmund Nicolaisen Enæs out of Oslo, secured the “Global Equity” category award at the EuroHedge Awards 2023. Pareto Total emerged as the top performer among Nordic hedge funds listed in the Nordic Hedge Index in 2023 with a return of 31.4 percent.

Operating without traditional industry constraints from the outset, Pareto Total adopted a broader perspective, investing freely based on their convictions without ties to specific indices or target figures. The team employs a concentrated approach to invest in high-quality companies that reinvest profits at high rates of return to foster further growth. The fund has invested in shares, high-yield and investment-grade bonds, and has engaged in short selling.

Johannessen and Enæs started Pareto Total in 2014 with an initial investment of just over one billion Norwegian kroner from the Pareto group’s own capital. Since its inception in mid-January 2014, Pareto Total has achieved an annualized return of 12.4 percent and has grown into one of the largest hedge funds in the Nordics with NOK 8.5 billion under management, equivalent to over €750 million.