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    A Healthy New Addition to the Article 9 Fund Family

    Stockholm (NordSIP) – The introduction of Level 2 of the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) at the beginning of the year has seen many asset managers scrambling to downgrade their Article 9 funds and reclassify them under Article 8. There are, however, some bold fund managers who dare to position their products into the more demanding sustainability category. Swedish boutique firm HealthInvest Partners, part of the Atle group, is one of them. On 1 February, the specialist asset manager announced (in Swedish) the launch of a new Sustainable Healthcare fund, to be classified under Article 9 of SFDR.

    The sustainable investment objective of the fund is broadly defined as the UN Sustainability Development Goal 3, “good health and well-being”. The way the managers intend to achieve this is by investing in healthcare companies with good growth potential that capture major advances in the development of new drugs and medical devices. To ensure full integration of the fund’s sustainability objective in the investment decisions, all portfolio companies will be assessed against a number of sustainability indicators, some of which are general and mandatory, whereas others are deemed as particularly important for the healthcare sector.

    The new actively managed global strategy has been in the making ever since HealthInvest recruited star manager duo Astrid Samuelsson and Ellinor Hult from Handelsbanken last autumn. “Astrid and Ellinor have a long track record of strong management performance,” comments Johan Stern, Chairman of HealthInvest Partners. “We are very pleased to have them join HealthInvest.”

    Samuelsson, who has been running a similar thematic fund for Handelsbanken for the past 15 years, sounds excited about the new venture. “It feels great to be up and running and focusing on such an exciting sector together with my colleague Ellinor,” she says. Her co-manager, Hult, is also happy to be able to focus on healthcare once again, after managing a thematic Japanese equities fund at Handelsbanken for the past few years. Prior to that she spent several years investing in the healthcare sector at Rhenman and Partners.

    HealthInvest has also put together a medical advisory board, consisting of both scientists and medical professionals, who are expected to help the managers gain a deeper understanding of the diverse fields they represent. “In an area as broad and complex as healthcare, it is wise to ask for a second opinion,” the managers explain. “We meet with our advisors to gain their medical knowledge and perspective, to identify exciting new drugs and treatments, but also to reduce the risk in our investments.”

    Image courtesy of HealthInvest Partners
    Julia Axelsson, CAIA
    Julia Axelsson, CAIA
    Julia has accumulated experience in asset management for more than 20 years in Stockholm and Beijing, in portfolio management, asset allocation, fund selection and risk management. In December 2020, she completed a program in Sustainability Studies at the University of Linköping. Julia speaks Mandarin, Bulgarian, Hindi, Russian, Swedish, Urdu and English. She holds a Master in Indology from Sofia University and has completed studies in Economics at both Stockholm University and Stockholm School of Economics.

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