High Yield Fund Manager Sold Fund One Month Before It Crashed – E24

Manager Arne Eidshagen sold his shares in the Forte Kreditt fund just one month before his fund was due to close in March.

It appears in the Finanstilsynet monitoring report.

«In accordance with the overview of the Company’s subscriptions and redemptions in the Fund, the Fund manager sold his entire stake in the Fund on February 19, 2020.»Writes Finanstilsynet.

On March 21, Forte Kreditt requested permission to suspend payments from the fund.

Forte: I should buy an apartment

«The sale was justified on the grounds that the Manager was in the process of purchasing an apartment and the Company can document that the sale contract was signed towards the end of March 2020.», Finanstilsynet writes that Forte has said.

According to Forte, the sale had not been reported for compliance, as indicated by the routines in the company. Eidshagen had reported on its sale plans in August 2019.

«The company indicates that the manager had informed about the intention to sell in August 2019. The reason why the sale did not materialize earlier was to wait for the liquidity situation to improve. The company notes that the liquidity situation had improved at the time of repayment. »

E24 has been unable to reach Eidshagen for comment.

Eidshagen left the fund earlier this year, as did CEO Margrethe Markussen a few weeks later.

In several articles, E24 has mentioned how Forte would spend a whole year shutting down Forte Kreditt, how risky industry veterans thought the fund was and that no one wanted to buy the fund’s contents.

New director: takes the report very seriously

Egil Matsen, who recently became the new CEO of Forte, says it will not be natural to comment further on the sale of units of Eidshagen funds.

– This has been reported to Finanstilsynet by the previous directory at Forte. It won’t be natural for him to comment on exactly how the manager disposed of his shares in the fund, says Matsen.

On the devastating report, Matsen says this:

– We take note of what is expressed in the report and we have begun to work with the expectations that the audit has for Forte and with what they want us to work. We take this very seriously.

– Do you agree with the evaluation of the Authority?

– At this point, there is not much to discuss. The audit has drawn its conclusions. We take it seriously.

Have you lost money in Forte Kreditt or do you have tips in the case? Contact the E24 reporter: [email protected]

Crushing report

In addition to the sale of Eidshagen units, Finanstilsynet criticizes a large number of issues at Forte Kreditt.

• The Authority believes that the fund should have been closed for a long time before the fund closed for redemptions in March.
• When the fund’s clients wanted to withdraw their money, the fund sold the liquid portion of the portfolio, increasing the risk for clients who remained in the fund. Much of the fund was illiquid and unsold.
• The audit criticizes the fact that the manager was solely responsible for determining the value of the fund’s content.

“Finanstilsynet takes very seriously the lack of monitoring and implementation by the board and the day-to-day management of decisions to improve the liquidity situation and reduce risk in the Fund. Finanstilsynet criticizes the Company’s valuation routine, in which the administrator was solely responsible for setting the price of securities that were not traded regularly ”, writes Finanstilsynet.

“In light of this, Finanstilsynet is also critical of the Company’s treatment of the nominee’s sale of its own holdings in the Fund.”