Brummer Multi-Strategy delivered a solid performance in 2025, supported by a sustained run of positive monthly returns from the beginning of the summer that carried through to year-end. While allocations to systematic trend-following, macro, and fixed income were a modest drag on results, the fund’s core exposure to long/short equity proved decisive, accounting for the 6.7 percent return in Swedish kronor and 8.9 percent in U.S. dollars. Notably, the contribution was driven predominantly by alpha rather than market beta, particularly on the short side.

“As Brummer Multi-Strategy enters its 24th year, 2025 proved to be another year of solid absolute performance delivered with controlled risk,” write the portfolio managers Patrik Brummer, Kerim Celebi, Adrian Brummer, and Wilhelm Kleman. “As in prior years, the majority of performance was driven by alpha rather than market beta, reinforcing Brummer Multi-Strategy’s role as a diversifying allocation within investor portfolios,” the team adds. “We are pleased that the majority of returns from this book has been driven by alpha, i.e. stock-specific risk, rather than broader market exposures.”

“We are pleased that the majority of returns from this book has been driven by alpha, i.e. stock-specific risk, rather than broader market exposures.”

The dominance of short alpha was particularly striking. Of the 9.1 percent unlevered contribution from long/short equity strategies, 7.5 percent came from short positions, while long alpha delivered only a modest positive return. The basket of long/short strategies also demonstrated strong consistency, posting positive performance in every month except March, when it experienced a contained drawdown of 1.1 percent. According to the team, “the stock picking environment was more conducive in the second half of the year than in the first,” with strategies focused on earnings revisions around reporting seasons performing especially well.

Portfolio Diversification Deepens Through Fixed Income Expansion

Brummer Multi-Strategy, offered across multiple legal structures and domiciles, allocates risk to a diversified set of strategies run by independent teams within Brummer & Partners. These span long/short equity, systematic trend-following, systematic macro, and fixed income. The strategies are managed within a shared balance sheet and a unified framework for portfolio construction and risk management: an operating model that increases capital efficiency and enhances the potential for alpha generation across the platform. That is a very different feature from a fund-of-funds structure.

In early 2025, the firm launched a new Scandinavian-focused discretionary fixed income relative value and macro pod, marking a further step in the build-out of its fixed income vertical. As risk was gradually deployed, this segment made a modest but positive contribution to overall performance. The expansion of fixed income capabilities is continuing. 

Brummer & Partners is currently in the process of onboarding a new credit strategy led by a seasoned trader with experience in relative value and single-name basis trading. The strategy, expected to go live in early 2026, will focus on trading corporate bonds against credit default swaps, on both positive and negative basis. “This is an area of the credit market where capacity is constrained and competition limited,” the team notes. The strategy is also highly capital-efficient and leverages recent investments in fixed income infrastructure, including treasury, execution and balance sheet optimization.

“This is an area of the credit market where capacity is constrained and competition limited.”

Beyond fixed income, diversification efforts in 2025 included the addition of a market-neutral long/short equity strategy focused on European financials, providing a differentiated source of idiosyncratic alpha and complementing existing equity exposures. As diversification has improved through the expansion of fixed income and equity strategies, the fund has reduced its strategic allocation to systematic trend-following, an area that faced a challenging environment across the industry in 2025.

Ongoing Platform Investments

At the organizational level, Brummer & Partners has continued to strengthen research, talent sourcing, execution and treasury capabilities. These investments have improved the firm’s ability to evaluate, onboard and support a broader range of investment strategies within a single institutional-quality framework, while preserving portfolio characteristics. Looking ahead, the team’s priorities remain unchanged. “As we look toward 2026, our focus remains on building a resilient, diversified, and scalable multi-strategy product that can compound strong risk-adjusted returns across all market environments,” the managers conclude.