Commodities-focused asset manager Svelland Capital has strengthened its research team with the appointment of Laurent Hoffmann as Head of Quantitative Research. Hoffmann brings a blend of hedge fund and energy markets experience, most recently from Shell, where he led quantitative research and analytics across power, gas, and carbon markets, before focusing on trading analytics and options strategy research within the firm’s crude oil derivatives business across Europe and East of Suez.
“We are thrilled to share that Laurent Hoffmann joined the Svelland Capital research team at the start of February as Head of Quantitative Research,” the firm said in a LinkedIn post. “In a time of heightened market volatility, we are looking forward to the proprietary research and analysis he will bring to the team. His advanced analytical frameworks further broaden our research capabilities and strengthen our decision-making.”
“In a time of heightened market volatility, we are looking forward to the proprietary research and analysis he will bring to the team.”
Prior to his four-and-a-half-year tenure at Shell, Hoffmann built experience within a hedge fund environment, in addition to building cross-asset experience as a quantitative analyst and portfolio manager at German state-owned winding-up institution FMS Wertmanagement (FMS-WM). In that role, he supported the proprietary credit arbitrage desk and asset management activities. Hoffmann holds a PhD and MSc in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics from the University of Kaiserslautern-Landau and the Max Planck Institute in Munich, as well as an MSc in Mathematical Finance from the University of Oxford. He has also conducted postdoctoral research in mathematical physics.
Since mid-2017, Svelland Capital has managed a fundamental, discretionary long/short strategy focused on global commodity markets. Svelland Global Trading Fund, led by founder Tor A. Svelland and teams based in Oslo and London, invests across commodity futures, freight derivatives, and equities, with smaller allocations to other commodity-related opportunities. The fund has been among the strongest performers in the Nordic hedge fund space in recent years. The fund has delivered an annualized return of 17.6 percent since its launch in August 2017.
