Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Swedish fund boutique Keel Capital is winding down its operations after 15 years in business, according to Swedish business magazine Dagens Industri. The asset manager’s assets under management have reportedly declined from a peak of SEK 12-13 billion to approximately SEK 3 billion.
Keel Capital has managed its long/short equity fund Foghorn since November 2009, alongside a double-leveraged version introduced in 2012 and a long-only equity fund, Longhorn, launched in 2014. Data obtained by HedgeNordic indicates that, as of late September, the two long/short funds had at least €140 million in combined assets, with €95.9 million attributed to the leveraged version. These funds primarily served institutional clients, including the Swedish multi-family office von Euler & Partners, according to data available to HedgeNordic.
Keel Capital’s funds focus on Nordic markets, aiming for stable returns with low risk through a fundamental investment approach supported by proprietary screening tools and financial models. Foghorn, the oldest vehicle in Keel Capital’s product range, has delivered an annualized return of 2.8 percent since launching in 2019. While Foghorn delivered an annualized return of six percent during its first six years of operations, performance has waned since 2016, with annualized returns dropping to one percent over the period since 2016. Despite this underperformance, occasional bright spots include a 2.2 percent gain during the challenging market conditions of 2022.
This decline in performance and assets under management appears to have prompted the decision to wind down operations, marking the end of an era for one of Sweden’s most secretive fund managers.
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