News and Press releases

Thursday April 18th, it is half day on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. This means that the stop time for orders of purchases and sales in our funds is at. 11:00.

POLIS Immobilien AG has acquired an office and service centre of around 33,000 sqm in the city centre of Gera. The acquisition was part of an asset deal. The seller is TLG IMMOBILIEN AG, Catella Property brokered the sale. 

Online retailing is taking an ever-greater proportion of Swedes' total spending, and companies that focus on the internet are being rewarded with much higher growth than those sticking to physical stores. Will regular stores disappear completely, and if so, when? In this month's podcast, Catella Fonder has brought together a number of analysts with expertise in this area to provide an overview: Carnegie's retail analyst Niklas Ekman, Catella Fonder's portfolio manager Anders Wennberg and Sandra Gadd, Business Development Director at Boozt.com.

At the beginning of the year, Catella Fondförvaltning AB (Catella) made a decision to coordinate the management of Catella Hedgefond and Catella Nordic Long/Short Equity into a single team. This was to increase synergies and to take another step towards an even more market-neutral and well-diversified management style.

It is always darkest before dawn, an expression that can in retrospect describe the conclusion of last year and the beginning of 2019. During the late autumn and, to a greater extent, all the way into the Christmas holiday, the financial markets were dominated by a strongly negative sentiment, with economic worries exacerbated by a continued belief in monetary policy tightening. The preferred interpretation was clearly negative, and 2018 closed on a low note. With the first quarter now over, we can instead look back on an absolutely fantastic start to the year, with almost all the worries blown away – at least when it comes to stock market performance.

Catella acted as an advisor to FinCap, when it sold two care properties. The properties were divested to Evli Healthcare I Ky.

I fielded a question at an investor meeting this week: “What should you do when your gut feeling says the stock market cannot rise any further but the interest rate on deposits is still zero?” I think there are many of us who can feel these reservations. The big underlying issue is how we feel about the economy. Is this just a pause or are we heading for a fall, and in that case how steep a fall? Economic fluctuations are tricky. They rarely come when you expect them, and they are even more rarely calm and rational since the market constantly overreacts. And both Brexit and a trade war are lurking in the shadows, reinforcing the uncertainty. Nonetheless, the stock market has been exceptionally strong at the start of the year and it is difficult to find good alternatives to shares when interest rates are so low. So, what should we turn to if we have that gut feeling the questioner expressed at the seminar?

Catella Fondförvaltning AB today publishes the funds' annual report for 2018. 

After a gloomy end to 2018 the new stock market year has begun very strongly. The US Federal Reserve has taken a softer stance and there are positive signals from the US-China trade talks. The reporting season was largely as expected, with an absence of negative news, and a Fed statement was enough to lift the stock market, say Catella's equity fund managers.

The Catella Nordic Long Short Equity (RC) hedge fund had a tough time last year. It fell by 13.8 percent and underperformed both the Nordic stock index and global hedge fund indexes. Although the fund has demonstrated a positive return of almost 32 percent since its inception in December 2010, and an average annual return of 3.6 percent over the same period, Catella Fonder decided to realign the fund's strategy and management in January 2019.

A large exposure, and a long-term holding that we have highlighted before, is care company Ambea. Since the company has just completed its acquisition of Aleris and reported for 2018 alongside its sector colleagues Humana and Attendo, it feels natural to look forward to 2019 and the coming 2020s.

Catella advised Alfred Kordelin foundation when it sold the courthouse property in Seinäjoki to Trevian Finland Properties I.

Catella Market Indicator has been published; Third strong year for property investments in a row During 2018, the Finnish real estate market continued on a strong note. Transaction volume eventually climbed up to EUR 8.9 billion, which is the second highest volume of all times. Weakening economic growth and general  uncertainty regarding the future have not yet reflected on the property market, and activity is  expected to remain high also in 2019.

The equity market has begun 2019 strongly after a gloomy end to last year, but in large parts of the world there are signs of weaker growth. The question is whether this is a temporary blip, caused by inventory build-up, or whether a longer decline is on the way.

Catella has during recent years gradually developed its portfolio management with increased focus on sustainability and absolute return strategies. The performance outcome in 2018 did not live up to our expectations and we are not satisfied, especially in the case of the fund Catella Nordic Long/Short Equity. Therefore, we will carry out a number of changes in our portfolio management by reallocating resources within the portfolio management team.

“It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.” Karl Kristian Steincke

Jack Bogle of Vanguard once said, “Half the time, I wonder why I have so much in stocks, and other times I wonder why I have so little.” The quotation rather neatly sums up the past year, but also investment decisions in general.

After several years of stable growth, global financial markets once again demonstrated their idiosyncrasy, and one word sums up 2018: Challenging.

Catella advised Polaris Pensionsstiftelse when it sold its residential property in Lauttasaari to Asunto Oy Helsingin Lahnaruoho, which is a company owned by Asuntosalkku Suomi, Nordic Business Investments and Diretor.