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SKAGEN Expands Fund Mandate, Moves Into Belgium
Sandra Kilhof
15 August 2013
Norwegian fund manager, SKAGEN, is expanding its
investment mandate for the SKAGEN Vekst fund, to include companies listed on
the stock exchanges in Sweden,
Denmark, Finland, as well as Norway. Under the move, the fund mandate will change from 50 per
cent Norwegian to 50 per cent Nordic as of 1 January 2014, and will still
remain 50 per cent global. The firm said that the new mandate will allow it to
invest in Norwegian companies, as well as having “the scope to find undervalued
companies with triggers for revaluation across the broader Nordic region”. “Unit holders will benefit from the larger investment
universe which will more than quadruple the number of investible stocks from
166 to 732; this will offer greater investment opportunities in industrial,
information technology, financial services, material, pharmaceutical and retail
companies as it allows for diversification and a broader mandate will improve
the funds’ liquidity,” SKAGEN said in a statement. Alongside this move, the firm is seeking unit holder
approval to improve the SKAGEN Vekst fee model. The proposal is to introduce a
year end high water mark for the variable management fee, such that following
periods when the fund's value has fallen, it will not be able to charge a
variable fee until the unit value at the previous high watermark, as per 31
December has been recovered. In related news, SKAGEN also said its Norwegian-domiciled
funds SKAGEN Global, SKAGEN Kon-Tiki, SKAGEN Vekst and SKAGEN Tellus will now
be marketed in Belgium. The expansion into Belgium is based on a growing
interest and demand from Belgian investors, the firm said. Potential and
existing clients in Belgium
will be serviced remotely from SKAGEN’S international office in Stavanger, Norway. In addition to its home markets in the Nordics, the firm
currently markets its funds in Luxembourg,
the Netherlands, the UK and Switzerland. As of 31 July 2013, SKAGEN had a total of €14.7 billion
($19.5 billion) in assets under management.