Established provider of thematic, innovative and bespoke investment solutions
Absolute Return Partners (ARP) was founded by Niels Jensen in 2002 and provides bespoke, thematic and innovative investment solutions for institutional investors and family offices.
ARP, based in London, is majority owned by its management team, comprising of three working partners.
The Team
Niels Clemen Jensen
Niels Clemen Jensen has over 30 years of investment banking and investment management experience. He began his career in Copenhagen in 1984 before moving to Shearson Lehman in London in 1986. In 1989 he joined Goldman Sachs and became co-head of its U.S. equity business in Europe in 1992, a post he held until 1996, when he joined Oppenheimer to manage its European business. In 1999 he re-joined Lehman Brothers, now in charge of European Wealth Management. In 2006 he was appointed Director of Trafalgar House Trustees Limited, advising one of the UK’s leading corporate pension funds on its investment strategy.
Niels founded Absolute Return Partners in 2002 and is the Chief Investment Officer.
Niels spends much of his time writing. He is the author of “The End of Indexing”, the highly renowned Absolute Return Letter and has contributed a chapter to “Harriman’s New Book of Investing Rules”. Niels has written for numerous other publications and is often quoted in the financial press.
Niels Clemen Jensen
Peter Kim
Peter Kim joined ARP in 2012 as a Financial Analyst and became a Partner in 2018. He has over 15 years of experience in all aspects of business operations including finance, compliance and HR.
He started his career at a corporate finance boutique in the City of London focusing on capital raising for SMEs and middle & back office support for a commercial real estate development fund. Peter holds a BEng (Hons) in Aerospace Engineering from University of Southampton, and completed a master’s degree in Reliability Engineering and Mathematics with a distinction from City, University of London.
Peter became Managing Partner in 2021, having fulfilled the Chief Operating Officer role since 2019. Peter is responsible for the firm's overall strategic, financial and operational decision making, as well as all non-investment related fund management activities including structuring, investor relations and third-party relationships.
Peter is a volunteer for a number of charities. He is also a governor of a local primary school.
Peter Kim
Birger Durhuus
Birger Durhuus has over 30 years of experience from the financial services industry in Denmark. He began his career as a Fixed Income Analyst at Danske in 1989 before moving to Nykredit in 1993 to set up a Fixed Income and Macro Economic Research division. In 1999 he joined Nordea where he became Headof Sales and Research focusing on Fixed Income, Derivatives and Credits. In 2007, he joined Danske Capital where he held several positions as Head of Alternative Investments, Head of External Management Selections as well as Head of Risk Management. In 2015 Birger joined the fixed income specialist Moma Advisors (later Asgard Asset Management) as CEO, a position he held until the end of 2022.
Birger joined ARP as Partner and Chief Development Officer leading our capital raising and closely involved in fund structuring and management. Birger has held several non executive positions and is currently a Board member of Bank Nordik.
Birger Durhuus
Mark Moloney
Mark Moloney joined Absolute Return Partners in 2016 as a Senior Analyst and became Head of Investments in 2020. He has over 12 years of investment research and investment management experience. He is responsible for co-managing the ARP Megatrend Fund’s portfolio of thematic direct investments.
Mark began his career at Saguenay Strathmore Capital, a Fund of Hedge Funds. He spent 5 years as part of the firm’s investment research team, researching third party hedge fund managers across strategies. Having joined Strathmore Capital in 2010, on a 1-year industrial placement as part of his degree program, he rejoined Saguenay Strathmore Capital on graduating in 2011. Mark worked as a research Associate and latterly Associate Director in the hedge fund research team, where he was responsible for due diligence and monitoring hedge fund investments.
Mark holds a BSc (Hons) in Economics from the University of Bath.
Mark Moloney
Austin Erwin
Austin A S Erwin has over 40 years experience across a wide range of commercial, merchant, investment banking and Non-Exec Board experience. During his career Austin has had a wide variety of senior banking and risk management positions. Austin began his career with Citi in New York before moving to Bahrain. Austin joined Shearson Lehman London to sell US equity to Middle East institutions but was recruited to return to Citi London to head their US Institutional Equity sales desk for Europe/Middle East/Africa. Austin returned to banking, including senior Citi EMEA risk manager for Cash, Trade and Securities, Leveraged Finance, corporate internet banking, SME banking and developing risk rating models. He invented and implemented a US patented corporate financial forecasting model. Most recently Austin consulted on Distressed Debt for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He has also served as a Non-Exec Director and/or Advisor of several start-ups, primarily in MedTech and FinTech.
Austin joined Absolute Return Partners during 2023 as the Risk Manager.
Austin is active in charity, including having served on the Board and the Finance Committee of KIDS, a charity for disabled young people. He is also a Governor of a London primary school.