Taner Pikdöken, former partner and portfolio manager at alternative fund boutique Atlant Fonder, has re-emerged with the launch of Always Summer Asset Management, a newly established alternative asset manager. Pikdöken is a co-founder and will lead portfolio management for the firm’s inaugural strategy, Always Opportunities, an absolute-return credit fund focused primarily on the Nordic corporate bond market, complemented by a flexible mandate to provide tailored financing solutions to mature European growth companies.
Pikdöken is part of a four-member founding team that also includes Sabina Wizander, former partner at early-stage venture capital firm Creandum, alongside tech entrepreneurs Fredrik Hjelm and Johannes Schildt. The combination brings together credit expertise, venture investing experience, and operational backgrounds in scaling companies.
Always Opportunities is a Nordic credit strategy with a flexible, absolute-return mandate aimed at generating positive returns across market environments. The portfolio is expected to consist of 50-70 bond positions, providing diversified exposure across a broad range of industries. At its core, the strategy focuses on stable, cash flow-generating instruments such as corporate bonds, complemented by the selective use of derivatives to actively manage exposures and protect capital.
“Our expertise in credit investing, combined with long experience of building and scaling companies, gives us a deeper understanding of value creation and risk than traditional credit analysis alone,” says Taner Pikdöken, CIO and Co-Founder. “The fund has a flexible, capital-preserving mandate, allowing us to act as a buyer when market uncertainty pushes prices below their true value.”
“The fund has a flexible, capital-preserving mandate, allowing us to act as a buyer when market uncertainty pushes prices below their true value.”
Taner Pikdöken, CIO and Co-Founder of Always Summer Asset Management.
Alongside its core credit allocation, the strategy will selectively originate bespoke financing solutions for high-growth companies, where structures can incorporate embedded upside participation. Always Opportunities seeks to leverage the team’s operational experience and network to access transactions that rarely reach the broader market. The focus is on mature European growth companies with established business models and cash flows, but which have long lacked access to the right type of capital by being too large for venture capital, yet too dynamic for traditional bank financing. The fund is positioned to bridge this gap through flexible, tailored capital solutions.
“Companies generating significant revenues, yet still pursuing strong growth, require flexible capital – that is what Always Opportunities is designed to provide.”
Fredrik Hjelm, Co-Founder of Always Summer Asset Management.
“As a founder, I have experienced first-hand how difficult it can be to access the right kind of capital,” explains co-founder Fredrik Hjelm. “There is plenty of funding at the early stage and for large corporates, but a clear gap in between,” he elaborates. “Companies generating significant revenues, yet still pursuing strong growth, require flexible capital – that is what Always Opportunities is designed to provide.”
