Episode summary
INVF Nordics Retreat 2026: Shakeb Syed of Odin Forvaltning Spoke to Muskan Arora
Summary
Shakeb Syed said he runs asset allocation at Odin Forvaltning, part of one of Norway’s largest banks, and manages about $8 billion himself within a business overseeing roughly $20 billion. He described his mandate as spanning equities, bonds, and blended portfolios, with a mix of equity-only and combined funds.
On geopolitics, Syed argued that investors should not overreact to headline risk. He said wars and tensions are real and painful, but what matters for markets is whether those events materially change a company’s profits, income, and cash flow. His approach is to be “a bit of a cold investor” and do less rather than more when the news flow is noisy.
On emerging markets, Syed rejected treating the asset class as one uniform bucket. He said the most interesting region over the last few years and the next few years is South Asia, pointing to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Nepal as markets with strong long-term potential. He highlighted rising middle-class demand, English proficiency, education, youth demographics, and entrepreneurship, and said investors with a five-year or longer horizon should be tilted toward the region.
Key takeaways
- Shakeb Syed said he manages about $8 billion personally and works within a firm overseeing around $20 billion.
- Syed argued that geopolitical events matter less than whether they change a company’s profits, income, and cash flow.
- He said investors should avoid doing too much in response to geopolitical headlines.
- Syed said South Asia is the most interesting emerging-market region for the next several years.
- He pointed to a growing middle class, English fluency, education, youth demographics, and entrepreneurship as South Asia’s main advantages.
Notable quotes
“what I really focus on is that how is the company's profits and income and cash flow going to change from this”
“it's more important to not do too much than try to do much when it comes to gypical attention”
“the most interesting part these last years and I think the coming years will be South Asia”
How the episode opens
Hi everyone. I'm at the Nordics Investor Retreat with — Shakib Sayed. — Hi Shakib. Could you tell me a bit more about your role? — Yeah, I'm uh the head of uh allocation asset allocation uh at uh a company called Udinfing. It's uh a part of um the second largest bank in Norway which is one
Um uh I manage uh I my own manage around 8 uh billion US dollars. Uh but Udin as a whole uh is around uh 20 billion US dollars. Um uh and I invest in equities bonds. I have uh combined portfolios of equities bonds.
Yeah.
Um and also uh have single um only equity funds that I manage. But I don't manage only bonds uh funds but I I I com I manage uh combined uh and equity only. Amazing.
And you just came off a panel talking about emerging markets, macro opportunities in the environment and we actually discussed a bit about currency hedging. So just starting with uh emerging markets, which regions do you see opportunities in and how are you kind of navigating risks involved with different geopolitical situations in different regions? Yeah, let me start with the uh with the latter uh question and that is that geopolitical tension and risk are all around us these days and and and especially these days uh Iran war is only one of many.
Um but I will say that having been working in this industry for now 21 22 years I'll say that I've become a bit of a cold investor if that's possible to say. Uh not personally h it really uh hurts me seeing all these geopolitical tension especially wars but I mean as an investor I've become a bit cold because what I really focus on is that how is the company's profits and income and cash flow
Going to change from this uh and and if they're going to change and many geopolitical tensions and risk are getting all the news I mean all the headlines but but it's not that uh important for the underlying company's uh profits.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- active management
- long-term investing
- market cycles
- high-quality businesses
- northics investing
Companies and tickers mentioned
- Odin Forvaltning
Watch the episode
Watch “INVF Nordics Retreat 2026: Shakeb Syed of Odin Forvaltning Spoke to Muskan Arora” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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