Our Portfolio Managers on the road in March

Kenneth Blomqvist and Janna Haahtela attended two investor conferences in March, meeting with 33 companies, 19 of which are current portfolio holdings.

Janna attended the Carnegie Healthcare Conference in Stockholm, which featured a high-quality agenda and she attended 13 one-on-one meetings with Nordic healthcare companies. Innovation in Nordic healthcare is of high quality, evident in the MedTech, Biotech, and Pharma sectors. Several interesting discussions took place during the meetings, including the role of compounders with Novo Nordisk, the future of amylin in weight management therapy with Gubra, the growth of Medicover in India, and the future of the animal health market with Vimian, to name a few.

Kenneth traveled to London for the Jefferies European Small Cap Conference, where he met with 18 companies from various sectors. There was a clear sense of optimism about the European economy and the investments that countries intend to make in defense, energy, infrastructure, and production capacity. Small caps in Europe and the Nordics will benefit from this, which is one of the reasons why we are positive about small cap stocks. The number of international investors was also noticeably higher than last year, signaling a growing appetite for European equities.

Company meetings are fundamental to our stock-picking strategy, and the time spent with management is valuable for future decision-making.