Meriti Neutral monthly report – January 2025

Meriti Neutral share class B rose in value by +0.12 percent during January, and the fund has thus returned +205.5 percent pro forma since the start of the strategy on June 30, 2010, while the correlation to the Swedish stock market has been 0.10.
The financial markets have started 2025 positively, but volatility has been high at times.
The AI threat from China's DeepSeek and Trump's promise to impose heavy tariffs on America's largest trading partners affected markets at the end of the month. Data from Goldman Sachs shows that hedge funds have acted by selling US stocks over the past five weeks.
According to data from LSEG I/B/E/S, European earnings are expected to rise by +1.5 percent in Q4 2024, with seven out of ten industries showing positive growth. For the full year 2025, earnings are expected to rise by +8 percent compared to 2024.
Eurozone GDP growth for the fourth quarter was 0.0 percent quarter-on-quarter, below expectations of 0.1 percent. The figures highlight the continued
the difference in growth within the euro area, where the economies of France and Germany shrank, while Spain and Portugal showed very strong growth.
Many central banks have acted in January. The ECB cut its key interest rate by 25 basis points to 2.75%, which was in line with expectations. The market expects the ECB to
lowers interest rates further at the meeting in March. In Sweden, the Riksbank decided to lower the policy rate from 2.5 to 2.25 percent and in the US, the Fed, as expected, left the rate unchanged at 4.25-4.50 percent.
The fund's Value-at-Risk (95%, 1 day) has averaged 0.59 percent during the month and the exposure to the stock market, the fund's estimated beta to global equities,
has averaged 0.24.
At the end of January, the fund had a total gross exposure to equities of 199 percent, consisting of 198 purchased (long) equity positions balanced by 193 sold
(short) equity positions. The size of the long positions averaged 0.52 percent and the short positions averaged -0.49 percent.