LHV World Equities Fund

In the last month of the year, all major equity positions in the fund continued to rise, the Funds unit value increased by 3.3% during the month and ended the year with a return of 18.1%. Over the year, our Nordic equity positions contributed the most to the unit value increase. The biggest gainer in the fund was the share of the Swedish medical technology company Getinge, which rose 102%. Among the Nordic equities, the most important gainers in the fund were the shares of Swedbank, Epiroc, Valmet, Ponsse, TCM Group, Wärtsilä and Sampo. We continue to hold equity positions in the well-managed Nordic listed companies. By sectors, we have diversified investments between different topics, of which the most important are the Swedish mining and medical technology companies, the Finnish forest industry companies and the Nordic energy groups. The funds three largest investments in the Nordic countries are UPM-Kymmene, Epiroc and Sandvik. We are focusing on opportunities in the commodities sector in the larger stock markets. The funds largest investments in US equity markets are copper miner Freeport McMoran and gold miner Barrick Gold. In the macroeconomy, we expect a strong consumption environment to continue. Global growth should be supported by the return of services, which remains below pre-pandemic levels in many sectors. As companies have underinvested in commodity markets and material production in the old economy for years, demand should continue to outstrip supply of goods. This means that inflation will continue to be uncomfortably high and major central banks will do first increases in key interest rates in this economic cycle. Uncomfortably high inflation and a change in the direction of monetary policy are probably the main risk areas that could shake the financial markets in the current year. The fund will certainly not be left untouched by short-term fluctuations, but in order to hedge the risks, we have invested primarily into strong Nordic industrial companies and the commodity sector. If the risks materialize, we expect companies with existing profits and real assets to withstand market fluctuations better than companies that are loss-making and expected to show high profits in the future.