HPB Introduced Investment Fund in Collaboration with German DJE

High dividend, high cash inflow, attractive price-to-book value ratio, and adequate net asset ratio on the balance sheet will be key criteria in selecting stocks for investment by the newly presented investment fund of Hrvatska poštanska banka – HPB World Absolute Value.

The fund will be managed by HPB’s investment fund management company HPB Invest in collaboration with the largest German independent investment company Dr. Jens Ehrhardt Group (DJE), which currently manages assets of around 10 billion euros. With this group, HPB Invest "develops other projects at the European level," emphasized the CEO of HPB Invest, Dominik Lice, without providing details about further cooperation.

The new fund of HPB Invest will primarily invest in the international market, specifically in stocks from the European Union, the USA, and OECD markets. It will focus on stocks that are undervalued based on their fundamental indicators but have significant market potential, said DJE founder Jens Ehrhardt. He added that one of the motivations for the DJE group’s collaboration with HPB is to increase the offer of international investments, which is still not sufficiently developed in Croatia.

The choice of HPB Invest as a partner is interpreted by the fact that it is an "independent partner, not owned by Italian or German interests," and it is also a company that is still not too large, allowing it flexibility in operations. HPB World Absolute Value is the tenth investment fund managed by HPB Invest, and the total assets of the eight currently active HPB funds amounted to 1.2 billion kuna at the end of June this year, or 145 percent more than at the beginning of the year. Measured by asset value, HPB Invest currently holds about 5 percent of the Croatian investment fund market, and Lice emphasized that their goal is to position themselves among the top three investment fund management companies in Croatia.

When asked to comment on the significant interest in Croatia for the public offering of HT shares, Jens Ehrhardt responded that he believes the price for those shares is "relatively low." (Hina)