“We have grown quite significantly over the past three years and have come to a point where it’s realistic to consider opening a second office. But I wouldn’t want to do it unless we can put at least two to three people on the ground, which I feel is much more rewarding,” said Asgeir Thordarson, head of the Nordic region at the firm.

Its second Nordic office will either be in Copenhagen or Helsinki. Mr Thordarson said it makes sense from a market point of view to open an office in Denmark, which is the second largest market, but that language was a reason to also consider Finland. The firm already has one of the largest offices of all international firms in the Nordic region and will continue to add staff to its business as long as its growth continues. Over the long term, it predicts boosting its Nordic staff from 14 to 25 members.

Although confident another office will help the business, Mr Thordarson does not believe the firm has lost out on any clients by not being based in each Nordic country.

“Being on the ground brings you a bit more local flavour than supporting clients from Stockholm. There are some pretty distinct nuances and differences between the markets,” he said.

Mr Thordarson said being an alpha manager has helped business growth over the past three years, since institutional investors are more aggressively looking for reliable sources of alpha.

“The low-return environment is driving investors from fixed income products to increasingly look for diverse sources of alpha. Emerging markets, Asia and some newer strategies that incorporate active extension are areas that a number of institutions are exploring,” he said.

Mr Thordarson expects a lot of interest for its active extension funds going forward, although investments have so far been limited. The strategy is the firm’s own version of 130/30 funds and has the ability to go both long and short.

At the end of September, the firm will also launch a market neutral fund into UCITs, which it, in particular, expects to appeal to investors in the current market climate.

“In insecure times, investors are looking for diversification across the risk spectrum and this fund fits nicely into the lower end of the risk spectrum – unlike most of our other riskier products. This is a strategy that we’ve been running for about four years in the private placement environment and it has been extremely successful. It has had low volatility but has delivered significant alpha,” he said.

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