Thorstensen has managed the high-yield fund Kraft Høyrente since August 2019. He will now have a more central role in Kraft Finans' focus on own management. Kraft Finans currently has around NOK 1 billion under its own management, divided between the fixed income fund Kraft Høyrente, the equity fund Kraft Global and various active management mandates.
- We are very pleased with the job Øivind Thorstensen has done managing Kraft Høyrente, where both the return and AUM have been very satisfactory since start-up in August 2019. We now look forward to him taking on an even more central role in Kraft Finans," says CEO Sveinung Byberg.
Solid start for Kraft Høyrente
Øivind Thorstensen has extensive experience of credit management in some of London's largest asset management companies. He has been one of Norway's most successful fixed income managers in recent years and started managing Kraft Høyrente in 2019. After only 12 months of operation, the fund has total assets of NOK 780 million. Like comparable fixed income funds, Kraft Høyrente was also hit by the corona crisis, but the fund has recovered impressively quickly and has delivered a return of just over 7.3 per cent since inception.
Thorstensen will continue to be responsible for the management of Kraft Høyrente, but he will also have a central role in the management of the Kraft Global equity fund and the various Aktiv Forvaltnings mandates. He will share responsibility for equity management with Simen Aarsland Øgreid, who after several years as an employee in the company's asset management department, is stepping up to become a manager.
- We therefore want to orientate our equity management more towards the philosophy that Thorstensen stands for, and thus build on his success. In addition, we have great management talent in Simen Aarsland Øgreid and we want to give him confidence as a manager. We believe that the combination of Thorstensen's experience, philosophy and Aarsland Øgreid's talent will take our asset management in a new direction that suits our customer group," says Byberg.
Looking to the Nordics
- Simen is a great talent who I look forward to working even more closely with in the years to come. Our equity management will continue to be global, but we will probably focus more on the Nordic market. This coincides well with the fact that the Nordic region is also the home of Kraft Høyrente, and thus a market we know very well," says Thorstensen.
He looks forward to streamlining the philosophy and strategy between Kraft Høyrente, Kraft Global and the various Active Management mandates.
- Much of the basic philosophy of Kraft Høyrente has been to create a portfolio that represents a cross-section of the Norwegian economy. We will therefore orientate our equity management more towards transparent portfolios, consisting of companies that score well on profitability, solidity, trend and momentum. We want to invest in companies that will be in demand throughout every cycle, and we will naturally have an active management philosophy at the core, with the goal of a good risk-managed return over time," says Thorstensen.
Organisational changes
At the same time as organisational changes are being implemented in Kraft Fondene, Ross Porter has decided to seek new challenges.
- "We would like to thank Ross for the work he has done in building up the asset management department at Kraft Finans. Ross is a person with an enormous amount of knowledge, and we are grateful that he has shared his knowledge with us over the past four years. We wish him all the best for the future," says Sveinung Byberg.
