The fund, due to launch in the third quarter of 2018, is to be the first in a suite of products, the asset manager said.
Nøddekær (pictured) will be head of Polar Capital’s brand new EM and Asia team and serve as lead manager on the new fund.
While at Nordea, Nøddekær ran nine funds, including the Emerging Stars Equity strategy, with more than $6bn of assets under management.
He is joined by Michael Wang and Jerry Wu, also ex-managers in the Nordea emerging markets team, and Peter Andersen, a former Nordea managing director.
Wang and Wu will be fund managers in the new team, with Wu also working as an analyst alongside Andersen.
Their departures from Nordea were first reported in March.
Juliana Hansveden and Emily Leveille took over for Nøddekær on the Emerging Stars Equity fund as lead and co-portfolio manager respectively.
At the time, Nordea stressed that its emerging markets portfolios would continue to be supported by a 14-strong team.
Rounding out the five-strong emerging markets team is Andy Chen who joins from Laxey Partners. Based in Shanghai, Chen will be the group’s head of research.
The rest of the team will be headquartered in Polar Capital’s offices in London.
The Nordea foursome is the latest score for Polar Capital, which has made several significant hires in the last two years, including nabbing ex-Miton UK value duo George Godber and Georgina Hamilton.
Gavin Rochussen, CEO of Polar Capital, and himself a strategic hire from JO Hambro Capital Management, said the decision to create a dedicated emerging markets team has been in the pipeline for some time.
“Since taking over at Polar Capital, I have made no secret of my desire to add an additional emerging markets team to further diversify the business,” he said.
“Jorry and his team fitted everything that we were looking for, they have the breadth and depth of experience, top-decile performance, a repeatable process and are able to demonstrate they can perform in different market cycles. They are an excellent addition to Polar Capital and I look forward to working with them.”
Portfolio Adviser was unable to reach Nordea AM for additional comments.
