EN 
SE 
After a strong 2023 with a net return of 27%, Exelity weathers the general stock market decline in January well, ending the first month of the year with a return after fees of 1.25%. Thus, the fund continues to show a stable excess return against all indexes, where the fund has only two negative return months (-1.6% and -0.5%) since 2023.
Although the fund's largest holding (7% of NAV) lost 13% during the month, Exelity's other holdings together with the transaction leg managed to hold up January to +1,25%. This compares to the broad index OMXSPI which noted -1.6% while the OMX Small Cap lost -1.2% for the month.
Equity exposure as a share of the total portfolio amounted to 54%, where the three largest holdings now constitute 16% of Exelity. At the same time, the loan leg continues to develop well, where since autumn 2022 we have a loan exposure in line with Exelity's long-term strategy around 40%. It bears repeating that the loan ramp that was ongoing in 2022 went from 17% in January 2022 (3 month rolling) to today's approximately 40% of Exelity's total portfolio, and which forms a stable base in the portfolio. The loan leg showed a continued stable underlying return, and contributed positively with 1.8% to Exelity's return during January.
Our upcoming loan income for the next twelve months corresponds to approx. 6 % of the fund's current asset mass (NAV), which forms a good basis for future stable returns. Our loan stock as of the end of November amounts to 41% of NAV, a level we are comfortable with and which is expected to remain around this in the near term.
During January, we signed three new guarantees, where the guarantee payments from all signed guarantees are currently expected to amount to approximately 5% of NAV. We continue to selectively underwrite in rights issues, where the average outcome in 2023 has been 20%.
On the equity side, the portfolio's biggest holding was Smart Eye (-13%), while names such as CTT, Vestum (+11%) and Infracom (+9%) performed well. In 2024, we believe that small caps will continue to close the valuation gap against large caps, as interest rate cuts approach.
We continue to note that the share portfolio is solid, while the loan stock is good, and that activity on the guarantee side continues to be strong. The strong momentum from 2023 looks set to continue and we look optimistically towards 2024.