By Stephen Roberts, CFA at Enfusion: When a team of seasoned investors from Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) set out to launch ICP Asset Management in 2023, they saw an opportunity to offer their experience to external clients. ICP Asset Management believe they are at the brink of the largest investment opportunity in decades – the industrial, digital and energy transition. Their experience from NBIM, coupled with their owner Aker – Norway’s leading industrial investment company – experience and engineering capacity, makes them well placed to capitalize on this opportunity. But in order to do so, they also needed to build a robust and mature infrastructure from the ground up, including the technology and workflows needed to operate effectively in a sophisticated market. 

“When we first started, we had to start everything from scratch. We barely had a laptop,” recalls Mads Elvenes, Director at ICP Asset Management. From this starting point, ICP Asset Management has established itself in global equities, with an emphasis on the energy, industrial and digital transition and expansion across borders.

“When we first started, we had to start everything from scratch. We barely had a laptop.”

In addition to its investment performance, ICP Asset Management stands out because they use their focus on operational effectiveness to gain a competitive edge as a lean, streamlined, and modern manager. The ICP founding team carefully considered their early approach on technology and operations. They understood these decisions would lay the foundation for their ability to thrive in tight and competitive market such as Norway. 

“This was the largest lift-out in NBIM’s history, and to be part of that is extremely motivating,” says Henriette Næss Edstrøm, Partner and CFO at ICP Asset Management

Building Operational Strength from Day One

ICP Asset Management was founded to invest in companies driving major industrial, digital and energy shifts. Their strategy is to invest globally in profitable quality companies advancing the digital, industrial, and energy transitions.

Their flagship fund, ICP Global Selection, targets sectors where transformation is underway. ICP Asset Management has also begun the process of merging with Norron, a Swedish asset management firm, known for its focus on Nordic markets and a range of strategies, including absolute return and credit funds. This move adds scale and complements ICP Asset Management’s investment strategy.

“We have a strong focus on automation and data integrity so that we can have a robust but also very efficient organization.”

Moreover, taking on the responsibilities of a full management company intensified the seriousness of their operational demands from the outset. ICP Asset Management required systems and processes, such as automated reconciliation and real-time compliance monitoring, that could meet institutional standards from day one.

“We have a strong focus on automation and data integrity so that we can have a robust but also very efficient organization,” adds Elvenes.

Choosing Enfusion: A Platform for Growth

Without legacy systems to work around, ICP Asset Management approached its technology choices with a fresh perspective. “We wanted an integrated platform from day one,” explains Edstrøm. They selected Enfusion because of its strengths as a lean but robust front-to-back solution that supports order management, execution, IBOR, accounting, and reporting in a single environment. Enfusion now sits at the center of their operational foundation, providing the integrated platform that enables them to grow while maintaining control.

“We wanted an integrated platform from day one.”

The rationale for their product selection went beyond internal workflows. Enfusion’s flexibility and API connectivity enable smooth data flow into ICP’s data warehouse, including transaction data and portfolio positions, which then automatically feed into their investor reporting tools and proprietary risk models, supporting faster turnaround time and reducing the chance of manual errors.

Enfusion Middle and Back Office Services provide another layer of support to ICP as well, particularly valuable for a lean team managing global operations. Settlements in China, for example, do not require the team in Oslo to take early morning interventions. “It’s hard to predict capacity needs. Having managed services gave us a very efficient and flexible way to handle that sourcing and be flexible,” says Elvenes.

Operational Excellence as Alpha Enabler

These operational choices have directly supported ICP Asset Management’s ability to pursue performance and investment alpha. By centralizing data and automating workflows, they reduce manual processes and allows its team to focus more directly on investment decisions instead of administrative tasks. Daily P&L emails and real-time portfolio data allow the investment team to make timely decisions based on accurate data. Customizable reporting also supports both regulatory compliance and investor transparency, helping ICP Asset Management stay responsive.

Their expansion plans are already built into their operational setup. Their second fund has been fully configured within Enfusion in advance of launch, highlighting the platform’s scalability. As they explore future strategies, including alternatives and post-merger integration, ICP expects their technology foundation to support these developments.

Nordic Market Dynamics and Regional Change

ICP Asset Management’s experience reflects broader trends reshaping asset management in Europe and the Nordics. Enfusion sees a fragmented but dynamic hedge fund environment in the region. As such, operational agility and strategic focus matter. More broadly, fee pressures, growing competition, and higher investor expectations are prompting managers to modernize.

This environment is also creating conditions that favor industry consolidation, provided that firm’s technology choices don’t create unintended obstacles. While ICP Asset Management is still in the early stages of integration in their ongoing merger with Norron, the team points to Enfusion’s API connectivity as a potential enabler. They consider Enfusion’s flexibility a foundation for more integrated operations.

Lessons for the Industry

As ICP Asset Management looks to the future, they offer straightforward advice to peers: 

• Choose providers who can adapt quickly and with a responsive and well-staffed support centre
• Don’t wait to consider the benefits of integrated managed services until you are big enough
• Use clear visibility into proprietary data to strengthen both investment processes and operational resilience.

Their experience points to a broader recognition across the industry: operational effectiveness is not merely an internal function. It underpins investment alpha and firm growth.