Brummer & Partners, a Stockholm-based multi-strategy hedge fund firm, continued to generate positive performance as markets moved into the second half of the year, notching up gains across its trend-following, equity, credit and relative value strategies in July.
The Brummer Multi-Strategy multi-manager fund – which invests in a range of single-strategy hedge funds – gained 1.1 per cent in its SEK share class, and 1.2 per cent in its USD class, during July. Year-to-date, the fund has now advanced 3.8 per cent.
The Brummer Multi-Strategy 2xL (BMS 2xL) was up 2.2 per cent in both SEK and USD classes in July, and is up 6.7 per cent for the year.
The Swedish hedge fund pioneer’s strategies were able to capitalise from largely positive second-quarter earnings numbers, coupled with rallying equity markets in July. That was despite souring relations between the US and China, and falling US and eurozone GDP numbers for Q2.
Specifically, July’s gains were powered by markedly strong returns in the BMS vehicle’s trend-following hedge fund strategies, with Florin Court up 3.7 per cent and Lynx advancing 7.5 per cent. Florin Court has now made 1.7 per cent for the year overall, while Lynx’s solid showing reversed the previous month’s 2.5 per cent loss, and leaves the fund largely flat for the year at 0.3 per cent.
Manticore, the US-based long/short equity strategy, generated positive alpha with a 1.7 per cent July return, and has now made more than 22 per cent in 2020.
Long/short credit strategy Observatory has risen 2.5 per cent over the seven-month period since January, boosted by a 1.1 per cent rise last month on the back of various idiosyncratic relative value trades.
Frost, Brummer’s fixed income relative value strategy, has profited from Scandinavian rates themes lately, which translated into a 1.1 per cent return last month. That has brought its overall 2020 showing to 7.7 per cent.
Lynx Constellation, a machine learning strategy, generated a 2.1 per cent advance – driven chiefly by equity indices trading – to put it some 0.3 per cent in the black YTD.
On the downside, long/short equity fund Black-and-White – which was up more than 5 per cent in June – stumbled in July, sliding 2.3 per cent. However, the fund remains in positive territory for the year, having made 3.8 per cent.
Arete, the Hong Kong-based discretionary macro fund, was flat for the month, and is up 8.1 per cent so far in 2020. AlphaCrest, a systematic equities strategy, also stood still in July, with its year-to-date performance holding at 2.5 per cent.
