ODIN Finland, the first fund with Finland as a focus to receive bronze rating from Morningstar

ODIN Finland is managed by Truls Haugen and the fund invests in shares of companies listed in Finland or companies headquartered or with origin in Finland. During the first half of 2012 the return of the fund was 10,2 percent while its benchmark only rose 0.7 percent in euro terms over the same period.

Morningstar categorizes the fund as a value fund and mention that the manager of the fund has managed extremely well within this category with its refined investment process. Morningstar also mentioned that some of the equity funds managed by ODIN has underperformed during the financial crisis but points out that ODIN has made several improvements in the investment process and that they now have a more strict process when choosing their investments in order to ensure a larger proportion of large caps in the portfolio. The portfolio has approximately 30 different holdings and approximately 25% is in large caps in order to ensure liquidity in the fund.

Truls Haugen is according to Morningstar the man for the job managing this fund and the return during his time as portfolio manager has been impressive. Truls has monitored the Finnish stock market since 1996, making him one of the most experienced fund managers in this region. Morningstar also comments on the fact that Truls manages this fund on his own as well as the ODIN Norden fund and human resources can be viewed as slightly scarce in this team. Truls has been employed in ODIN since 1996 and has been the portfolio manager for ODIN Finland since 2000.

Morningstar concludes their report by recommending this fund as a good alternative within Finnish stocks thanks to the skillful fund manager and the investment process och awards the fund with their bronze rating.

(site Odin - 04/09/12)