Nordea 1 - Nordic Equity Small Cp BP EUR

Analyst Report
Morningstar's Take
|27/06/2024

by Thomas De Fauw
The managers behind Nordea’s Nordic small-cap strategy are topnotch, but the fund’s large asset base poses liquidity risks and makes it harder to generate alpha from its highest convictions going forward. We are downgrading the Process Pillar rating to Below Average from Average to better reflect these concerns while maintaining a High People Pillar rating.

Mats Andersson has built a strong track record here. From October 2002 through May 2024, the Finnish-domiciled fund has outperformed its Morningstar Category benchmark and category peers by a wide margin. Over his two-decade tenure at the fund, Andersson gained deep knowledge of the Nordic equity universe and a good sense of how to trade in the region’s often illiquid small-cap stocks. We also like that he is personally invested in the fund. Since October 2013, he has been supported by Björn Henriksson. He leads Nordea’s Swedish small-cap fund, which shares a lot of its holdings with this strategy. The duo typically invests in quality companies with strong management and appealing valuation. But they are confronted with the difficulty of maneuvering a large asset base: The strategy grew more than 60% in the past five years through May 2024 despite net outflows. This led the portfolio’s tail to bloat, going up to over 170 stocks with a weight of less than 1% from around 100 in early 2020.

It also resulted in an increase in the fund’s mid-cap holdings, which might lead to a dilution of its best small-cap ideas. Also, the fund owns more than 10% of the outstanding shares in a number of core holdings. Although Andersson’s hands-on liquidity management style is comforting, the liquidity profile, the lifting of the soft-closure of the larger Finnish-domiciled fund in May 2024, and the evolving shape of the portfolio warrant caution.
 
Morningstar Medalist Rating™Concern over liquidity risk despite deft investment management.
To find out how Morningstar rates a fund click here.
Morningstar Pillars
PeopleHigh
ParentAbove Average
ProcessBelow Average
 
Morningstar Medalist RatingMorningstar assigns the Medalist Rating to funds that are qualitatively and quantitatively assessed through manager research and algorithmic processes. The assessment turns on three key “pillars” – People, Process, and Parent – that yield an estimate of how well a fund will perform before fees but after adjusting for risk.
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