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After only positive return months in 2024, Exelity closes -1% for August and thus +17% for the full year 2024. The beginning of the month was marked by major stock market rout, a rover that did not fully recover. While the OMX Stockholm PI and First North Index were down by around 0.5%, the OMX Small Cap saw an even bigger decline during the month at -4%. For the full year 2024, Exelity continues to generate strong alpha, where the fund so far this year is +17% after fees. This compares to OMX Small Cap PI which is +4%, First North Index +3%, as well as OMX SPI +11% for the full year 2024. Since I took over the manager role, in the fall of 2023, Exelity is +35% (after fees) with only one month of negative returns (August 2024, -1%).
Like the stock market as a whole, there were headwinds in the listed leg with, among other things, weak development from a number of the fund's larger holdings such as Smart Eye (-17%), Paxman (-14%) and Fortnox (-12%). On the positive side, FreeTrailer came in with a strong report, with the stock closing +7% for the month. Nanexa also showed strength during the month with an unparalleled rise of +63%. Given that no company weighs more than 10% of the fund, the declines were well matched with continued stability in the transaction leg. The share leg as of the end of August is approx. 58% of the fund, where average share exposure during 2024 has been 61%.
Over the past 20 months, Exelity has recorded only three negative return months, with the largest decline amounting to -1.6% (September 2023). This can be compared to OMX Small Cap where 13 months have shown negative returns (biggest decline: -9% May-2023) since January 2023. One reason why Exelity pares the declines well is the transaction leg, which generates good returns regardless of the market climate. During the month of August, the transaction leg was +0.9%, and is thus +9.5% for the year. The loan leg has continued to develop stably and constitutes 30% of the fund's core as of the end of August, an increase from the month before of 28%.
It bears mentioning that the loan portfolio is made up of listed companies, all but one of which are listed on the Swedish stock exchange. Exelity has continued to have zero loan defaults since inception, where we continue to reserve for potential losses.
During August, we signed a new guarantee, as well as a new loan. We continue to selectively underwrite in rights issues, where the average yield through 2024 has been an impressive 8%. We note that Exelity's quantitative modeling for loans and guarantees continues to create strong value for the fund's shareholders, and is a main reason for the fund's strong development in transactions.
After a strong development in 2024, I look with confidence towards the end of the year where Exelity's pipeline is judged to remain solid.