News and Press Releases

The Catella Balanserad fund has long offered good returns and was recently awarded five stars by Morningstar in 3 and 5 years (21 September 2018). The fund has a global perspective and consists of all asset classes. According to fund manager Ola Mårtensson, stocks are generally not expensive yet − not even in the United States. And for the first time in several years, it may be the moment for a comeback for Japanese companies.

"It's only when the tide goes out that you learn who has been swimming naked," said US finance guru Warren Buffet, referring to the banks during the financial crisis. It may seem strange to be talking about high tides after one of the driest summers anyone can remember, but it may be more relevant when we look at the financial markets.

Today, Monday, September 17, Catella Sverige Index changes its name to Catella Sverige Hållbart Beta. The reason for the name change is that we are now taking the next step in transforming the fund into a sustainable fund that invests broadly in the Swedish SIXRX stock index while at the same time avoiding a number of industries and companies that we do not consider sustainable in the long term. We have clarified and improved the processes surrounding sustainability for all our funds, and we now have an exclusion limit for all funds and work to influence companies for all our holdings.

The objective of Catella Hedgefond is to achieve stable returns at low risk, regardless of market conditions. The fund invests mainly in Nordic equities and bonds, as well as in derivatives. Sustainability is an integral part of the fund management and the fund applies negative screening for sustainability criteria and consequently avoids long positions in companies that produce tobacco, alcohol, commercial games for money, pornography, coal, or weapons. Derivatives are used in the management of the fund to protect its capital and increase return opportunities. The fund strives to achieve low correlation with performance in the equity, credit and bond markets and may thus both raise the expected return and lower the expected risk in a traditional equity and fixed income portfolio.

The economy is at a late stage of the cycle, which, experience suggests, should have several consequences. Wages and inflation should begin to accelerate, resulting in higher key interest rates but, so far, the predictions have not been fully realised, creating problems for some of Catella's funds. However, portfolio managers Thomas Elofsson and Martin Jonsson are still in good spirits and expect a better autumn in a number of respects.

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

Saving up a buffer for unexpected costs is probably the most important saving of all. Once your buffer is in place you should create a good mix on a slightly longer investment horizon; the one for your longer-term goals and dreams.

When we summed up 2017, the verdict was that it was an unusually stable year, economically and market-wise. The first half of 2018 has brought more movement in the market and, in pace with less expansive monetary policy, the risks of a backlash in the world economy and the finance market are rising. For the market, the single-most important question is when will the next recession arrive.

Summer holidays and the football World Cup. The fantastic start to the Swedish summer takes me back to the summers of early childhood when sunburn was as expected as sweet interludes with an ice-cream lolly or a Cornetto. For my generation, the football World Cup will always bring back 1994, when we sat up at night, crossing our fingers that the impossible was finally going to happen. Summer and the holidays also give us a bit of time for much-needed reflection about our lives. After all, the financial markets are a bit like life itself, full of dreams, challenges, hopes and disappointments. In the best case, joy and good fortune.

Most investors I have met, and I include myself, like to describe their investment horizon as long-term. This may well be true, but in some cases the words can be used if an investment has not really performed as planned. “We have a long-term view of the company” can sometimes be interpreted as “We were wrong in the short term but if we keep the holding long enough it will get better”.

Sustainability is increasingly important in the selection of shares for fund portfolios. But in addition to using it as a tool for excluding certain companies, it can be employed to choose new shares for a portfolio. This is highlighted by Anna Strömberg, Sustainability Officer and Portfolio Manager for Catella Sverige Aktiv Hållbarhet. 

Wednesday May 9th, 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.

The interim reporting season for the first quarter has revealed relatively strong performance, with engineering companies included. Two of Catella Fonder's portfolio managers, Sven Thorén who shares the management of Catella Hedgefond and Henrik Gripenvik who is involved in managing Catella Sverige Aktiv Hållbarhet, believe the reports show that many companies still have a lot to offer in the current business cycle.

Before we review the performance of Catella Nordic Long Short Equity we would like to start by saying that Martin Nilsson and Ola Mårtensson have now managed the fund for three years. Three years is an important milestone for fund evaluators and analysts so it is therefore particularly pleasing to sum up this period. Catella Nordic Long Short has generated +29* percent compared to +18.7* percent for the Stockholm stock exchange (SIXRX per 30 April 2018). This was at a standard deviation of 14.6* percent for SIXRX and 7.4* percent for Catella Nordic Long Short, and with a correlation of approximately 0.4*. "We are very pleased with our performance in terms of risk-adjusted returns, and we maintain our goal - to create a good risk-adjusted return regardless of the stock market climate," says Martin Nilsson.

Thursday April 30th, 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.

Catella began a journey in 2009 to integrate sustainability into our investment process by becoming a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment, committing ourselves to addressing environmental, social and governance issues in our decision making, and to promoting greater transparency and openness on these issues.

The global economy has recently been shaken by US gambits over trade tariffs on steel and aluminium. China has responded by announcing tariffs on goods such as pork, but it is too early to draw parallels with 1930, when world trade shrank by 70 percent. Instead, the global economy appears to be facing an unusually resilient period, with a synchronised upturn in both the United States and elsewhere – and in a number of different industries. Danske Bank's strategist Mattias Sundling and Catella Fonder's Henrik Gripenvik, who manages the Catella Aktiv Sverige Hållbarhet fund, are quite unanimous.

Thursday March 29th, 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.

Brilliant spring sunshine, but still several degrees below zero in the capital. The snow has stayed around unusually late in the season, but the daytime thaw hints of warmer and lighter times to come. In this period of transition, I found myself thinking about the all-weather jacket. The ultimate piece of clothing, designed to withstand wind and rain but easily unzipped and opened up when the sun is shining or when you're working up a sweat. And this can be used as a metaphor in the hunt for the ultimate portfolio.

Interest rates have been steadily seeking out new lows for a long time now, but this has changed. All the signs suggest the low point has passed and we are facing a period of gently rising rates. Is it possible to make good investments in this new environment?Catella Fonder has options for clients who want to bypass the volatile stock markets and the negative performance of traditional bond funds that invest in government securities.

Only a couple of months have passed since the start of 2018, but we can already look back on strong market movements. The year began strongly, and at the end of January companies reported figures for the fourth quarter of 2017, which overall exceeded expectations. There were particularly strong reports from cyclical companies. Even the banks, which weigh heavily in the Swedish equity market, came in above expectations.

2018 began with rising stock prices and low volatility, but in February the equity market fell and volatility increased significantly. Catella Hedgefond’s ambition is to create a good risk-adjusted return with a low risk and with a low correlation to the equity and fixed income markets. So far this year, Catella Hedgefond has gained +0.5 percent at a significantly lower risk than the equity market (which generated 0.7 percent). The fund’s return is driven by company-specific picks, not market risk, and these company-specific cases are both long and short positions. 

It was worth listening to Catella’s podcasts in 2017. Not least when analyst Arvid Lindquist warned of excessive housing construction in the cities and that commercial premises in less attractive locations would have a tough time – and that’s how it turned out

It was always my feeling that hedge funds and family offi ces shared much of the same DNA, with their typical entrepreneur driven, bouti que setup, the desire for absolute returns over beati ng a benchmark and the dogmati c striving of capital preservati on.

The start of 2018 has been strong for Catella Nordic Long Short Equity, following good company selection for both longs and shorts. The long holdings (positions for a rising stock market) include PGS, Storebrand and Xspray. The main shorts for the fund (positions for a falling stock market) have been Christian Hansen and Royal Unibrew.

In recent years it has become more popular to invest in passively managed funds, known as index tracker funds. Of the total net flows into equity funds during 2017, almost 80 percent (SEK 37.4bn) went to tracker funds, and by the end of the year these funds made up almost 16 percent of total equity fund assets. Even though Catella Fonder stands for active management, with our analysis and knowledge forming the foundation of our fund management, we would like to highlight the importance of choosing the right index fund.

We can sum up 2017 with one word: stability. Despite continued interest rate hikes and trimmed balance sheets by the US Federal Reserve, despite reduced purchasing of securities by the European Central Bank, despite an inconsistent US president, and despite North Korea launching missiles and testing atom bombs, the world's financial markets have been stable. Even in Sweden, which for many years has been something of a growth wonderkid and where reality has caught up, the market as a whole has been stable.

One of the most recognised tracks by rock legends Pink Floyd, from the album The Wall and released in 1979. The lyrics describe how the main character of the album, Pink, collapses and is medicated by a doctor to get him back on his feet, causing him to feel comfortably numb.