Protean Small Cap declined by -0.9% in March. The benchmark index declined -3.1%. Since launching in June 2023, the fund has gained 55.6%. The Carnegie Nordic Small Cap Index is up 22.1% in the same period.
The hedge fund Protean Select returned 0.5% in March.
Protean Aktiesparfond Norden returned -2.8%. The benchmark was down by -2.6%. Since inception, twelve months ago, the fund is up 18.3%, and in the same period the VINX Nordic Cap index is up 12.8%. The fund now manages 1.7bn SEK.
All figures are net of fees.
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This month’s letter elaborates on Aktiesparfonden’s encouraging first year, the Fog of War that plagued markets in March, why we remain cautious but not as cautious as mid-March and why we were unusually active. Plus, as always, commentary on the month’s various winners and losers.
Thank you for being an investor!
// Team Protean
Nowhere to hide
March 2026 • Written by Pontus Dackmo
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Wouldn’t it have been convenient to write this month’s missive about something completely different? A company deep-dive, a reflection on Nordic small cap valuations, perhaps an observation about the underappreciated capital cycle in some obscure industrial niche. We’d have preferred that. You’d probably have preferred that too.
The instinct, as a Nordic-focused fund manager, is to treat geopolitical events as background noise. We don’t trade oil futures, we don’t run a macro fund, and we certainly don’t have an edge on the intentions of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard or US Commander in Chief. It would be comfortable to dismiss the Middle East crisis as someone else’s problem and retreat to the familiar terrain of Nordic company fundamentals.
The problem is: there is no such retreat. An inconvenient fact about the Nordic equity markets is that most of our listed companies have international operations and are deeply embedded in global supply chains. A Swedish industrial company might report in kronor, hold its AGM in Stockholm, and have a thoroughly Nordic board – but its input costs are denominated in dollars, its customers are in Germany and China, and its order book is a function of global capex cycles. An energy shock in the Strait of Hormuz doesn’t stop at the Persian Gulf. It travels through Brent crude, through European gas prices, through the front end of rate curves, through the krona, through sentiment, and eventually lands on the desk of a CFO in a mid-sized Swedish town, wondering whether to revise guidance.
There is nowhere to hide from a physical supply shock. Not in Scandinavia, not in small caps, not in “quality compounders”.
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The fog
General Carl von Clausewitz coined the term “fog of war” almost two centuries ago. In the chaos of conflict, the information available to decision-makers is incomplete, contradictory, and often deliberately
misleading. The rational response, he argued, is not to seek certainty, but to make decisions robust enough to survive being wrong.
March offered a masterclass in modern fog of war, except now the fog is generated not by cannon smoke but by tweets and nonsense.
We have no edge in forecasting the outcome of the Middle East conflict. None. We do not know whether the Strait of Hormuz will reopen next week or remain contested for months. We do not know if escalation leads to a ground operation or if a face-saving deal materializes over Easter. And critically, we don’t think anyone else knows either – regardless of how confidently they narrate it. What we can control is how we position for the range of outcomes.
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Active Portfolio Management
March was, in all likelihood, the most active month we have had in a long while. Possibly ever.
That warrants some explanation. We do not celebrate turnover. Trading is, at its core, a necessary evil since every ticket is connected to a commission cost borne by the fund, every spread has two sides. We are fully aware that activity for activity’s sake is a reliable way to erode returns whilst just producing a feeling of being busy.
What happened in March is that prices moved, on a daily basis, in ways that had very little to do with company fundamentals. Tariff announcements, reversals, threats, walk-backs – the signal-to-noise ratio collapsed. When the market reprices a business by 10% because a politician said something on a Sunday, and then reprices it back 8% two days later, the question we ask ourselves is not “should we trade?” but “can we afford not to?” The disconnect between price and value was, on certain days, wide enough to drive a truck through.
So we traded. We trimmed things that moved too far. We added to things that got dragged down indiscriminately.
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We do not fetishize this. The goal is never to be active. It is to own businesses at prices that make sense. Some months that means sitting on our hands. March was not that month. When the market hands you volatility as a gift, and the underlying thesis hasn’t changed, the correct response is to use it.
The honest addendum: a fair few trades in March were wrong. Some we were too early on; some we shouldn’t have touched at all. Elevated activity is a double-edged sword: more opportunities to profit, but also more chances being wrong.
What we’re watching
The honest answer is: we’re watching the same thing as everyone else. The Middle East. The Strait of Hormuz. The oil price. But we’re also watching for the second-order effects that tend to arrive with a lag and matter more than the headlines.
More speculatively: we are watching for the moment when the market shifts from treating this as a binary event (resolved / not resolved) to treating it as a new baseline. That shift, when it happens, tends to be where opportunity is greatest. Because once the question changes from “will things go back to normal?” to “what does the new normal look like?”, the answer requires fundamental analysis rather than geopolitical punditry.
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But you don’t always need to wait for the fog to lift. Some conclusions are robust regardless of how the binary question resolves. Here’s an example from our own process.
In the middle of March, we bought a meaningful amount of Nibe (NDYLF) (NDYLF). The thesis is not that the war ends tomorrow, nor that it drags on for months. The thesis is that regardless of outcome, this crisis will put energy efficiency and reduced oil dependence back on the political agenda across Europe – forcefully, and probably durably. It happened after the 2022 Ukraine shock, when heat pump sales exploded and energy renovation became a political priority. That impulse then faded as gas prices normalised and populist backlash pushed governments to soften their climate ambitions. Well, here we are again. Except this time, the lesson should be harder to forget: Europe’s energy dependence is not a theoretical risk discussed at think tanks. It’s a physical vulnerability that disrupts economies when things go wrong in places we can’t control.
Nibe is the dominant European manufacturer of heat pumps. The stock has been in the penalty box for two years – inventory destocking, normalising demand, increasing competition, a weak Swedish housing market. It’s down 70% from its peak. We think the market is pricing a permanently impaired business, while the structural case for energy-efficient heating has just been handed another powerful catalyst.
This is the kind of analysis we prefer: not “will there be a ceasefire by April 6th?” but “what is likely true about the world on the other side of this, no matter what?” The best investments tend to come from conclusions that don’t depend on the impossible task of predicting the unpredictable.
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Aktiesparfond Norden – One Year In
March 31st marked one year since launch. The fund has returned +18.3% against the VBCSKN index’s +12.8%. That is an outperformance of 5.5%.
Twelve months is not a track record. It’s a start. A better start than a bad start, which is all we’ll claim.
The more instructive number is the 1.7bn SEK in assets attracted. To understand why that matters, you need to remember the problem we set out to solve.
The active fund management industry has a well-documented flaw: virtually all serious research shows that actively managed funds underperform their benchmarks after fees. Not because the underlying stock-picking is necessarily bad, but because fees are too high, portfolios too bloated, and the incentive structure backwards. Fund companies optimize for asset gathering. Banks optimize for captive distribution. Neither optimizes for the person actually trying to compound their savings.
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The obvious counter is the index fund. Cheap, transparent, honest. Except it owns everything indiscriminately – the frauds, the fads, the structurally declining businesses – with no judgment or overlay.
Our argument has always been that there is a gap between these two options. A white space that nobody has an incentive to fill: a low-fee, genuinely active, long-term oriented fund owning decent Nordic businesses. Just a manager with skin in the game, focused on long-term cash flow generation, making decisions without anyone else’s approval required.
The Aktiesparfond was built on the premise that a long-term Nordic saver deserves access to that kind of independent, genuinely active management. At 0.5% per year, with daily liquidity, alongside every expensive active fund and index fund in existence.
That 1.7bn SEK after one year suggests the gap was real. Whether the performance holds is a separate question, the last one year tells us almost nothing with statistical significance. But the structure is working, the thesis is intact, and the alignment of interests remains the foundation.
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A Punch In The Mouth
The Prussian military strategist Helmuth von Moltke was a contemporary of Clausewitz. He is remembered for the observation that no plan survives first contact with the enemy (a version of which Mike Tyson famously converted to “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”). The investment equivalent is that no portfolio survives first contact with a real-world shock.
We came into 2026 positioned for a world of monetary tailwinds, deregulation, and an improving European outlook. That world has been interrupted – perhaps temporarily, perhaps not.
Months like March are uncomfortable. They are supposed to be. Comfort is rarely where returns are found. We remind ourselves – and you – that our process is designed to compound over years, not months. The key is to stay in the game, avoid big draw-downs, suffer intelligently when suffering is unavoidable, and be ready to act when the fog lifts.
Thank you for being an investor.
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// Team Protean
Protean Select
March 2026 • Written by Pontus Dackmo
Protean Select returned +0.5% in March. After two softer months to start the year, this is a welcome result, and more importantly, it is the kind of month that gives the strategy its reason for existing.
Nordic indices were down between 5 and 10% this month, depending on which one you pick. We ran an average net exposure of around 20%. The fund made a small positive return. That is roughly what we designed this thing to do.
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We are not a market-neutral fund. Or a short-biased fund. We are a fund that believes, with some conviction, that things generally want to work out in the end, and that the majority of long-term returns are made by owning businesses, not by being overly clever about when to be short them. That belief is why we almost always keep a positive net exposure, even in difficult conditions. The shorts are there not just to make money in isolation, but to act as an airbag: you don’t drive with an airbag hoping it deploys, but you’re grateful it’s there when it does. Like this month.
Biggest contributors were the OMX future short position (plus put-spread), Rusta long, NIBE long and Electrolux (ELUXY) short, in that order.
Biggest detractors were Devyser, Lundin Mining (LUNMF) (although offset by a short in Boliden (BDNNY) (BDNNY)), Volvo (VLVLY) and Getinge (GNGBY) long positions.
We enter April at 19% net exposure. Gross is now at 117%, having nudged it upward from more cautious levels, moving gradually back toward our historical average of around 135%. This is a deliberate, incremental decision, not a conviction call. The market feels non-linear right now. If conditions continue to feel constructive enough to justify additional risk, we will add. If not, we won’t.
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We said going into the year that we wanted to earn the right to take more risk. March was a small step in that direction. Let’s see what April has to say about it.
Lowering the capacity limit
We announced during the month that we are lowering the capacity limit for Protean Select from SEK 2 billion to SEK 1 billion. The fund currently manages approximately SEK 970 million. We are, in other words, very close.
Some context. When we originally set the cap at SEK 2 billion, we assessed capacity based on the fund in isolation. That was reasonable at the time. But circumstances have changed. We now manage institutional mandates alongside the fund, applying a similar investment strategy in the same universe of Nordic small- and midcap companies. Running larger aggregate capital through the same opportunity set degrades the things that matter most: execution quality, the ability to take meaningful positions in less liquid names, and the speed of decision-making that comes with being small. We’d rather close too early than too late.
Here is how it will work. Once we pass SEK 1 billion, we will communicate that the fund is closing. There will then be a final subscription window of approximately one month. After that, the fund is closed to new capital. Withdrawals are always possible – this only affects new deposits.
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Readers of these letters will recognise the philosophy.
We have said since day one that we optimise for performance, not for convenience, size, or marketing. We have written at length – perhaps at tedious length – about the perverse incentives in fund management, how AUM-maximising behaviour dilutes returns, and how size is one of the primary ways performance dies. We have said we would cap the fund early. We have said we would sacrifice revenue for return quality. And now, approaching the moment where those words become action, it feels worth pausing to acknowledge what this means.
On a personal level, the prospect of actually closing the fund is a source of pride. Not because turning away capital is clever business – it obviously isn’t. But because it means we are doing what we said we would do. When we started Protean, the motivation was to invest our own savings in an institutional setting, not to build an asset gathering machine. Every structural choice we’ve made has pointed in this direction: the quarterly redemptions that scare off allocators, the size cap that limits our fee income, the high hurdle rates that make performance fees genuinely hard to earn. None of this is “How to Build a Big Profitable Fund Management Business”. If there were a textbook on the subject, we’d feature as a cautionary tale.
But here’s the thing. Almost four years in, the fund has delivered competitive risk-adjusted returns. We even won an actual prize for it. Assets have grown to the cap not through marketing campaigns, but through performance and word of mouth. Our investors include some of the most sophisticated allocators we know, alongside friends, family, and our own savings. That this motley crew has collectively brought us to the point of closure feels like vindication of a philosophy.
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We recognise this limits flexibility for both existing and prospective investors. That trade-off is deliberate. Protecting the conditions for good long-term returns is, in our view, the most important thing we can do for the people who have already entrusted us with their capital.
Protean Small Cap
March 2026 • Written by Carl Gustafsson
Protean Small Cap returned -0.9% in March. Our benchmark CSRXN (SEK) was down -3.1% during the month. Hence, the fund outperformed the index by 2.3%. Since inception in June 2023, the fund has outperformed the index by 33.5%. Total performance since inception is 55.6% net of fees.
The fund now manages c. SEK 990m following a continued inflow of funds, thank you for believing in us.
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March recap
Top contributors were Cint, Rusta, BTS, Smartoptics and Nibe. Notable detractors were Devyser, Balder (BALDY) (BALDY), Arctic Falls, Nyfosa and ITAB.
Cint reported a considerable sequential improvement in sales during the fourth quarter and we increased our stake in the company on the day of the report in February. Since then, the share has continued to climb and it became our biggest contributor in March. It’s not a stock for widows and orphans but we believe the market is underestimating the growth opportunity within the business area Media Measurement. We acknowledge a string of operational issues, as well as about the impact of AI on the market research sector, but Q3 was likely the trough in terms of pain. The valuation is very appealing.
Rusta reported a very strong quarter, where the benefits of the stronger SEK started to have an impact. Healthy LFL, as well as a firmer outlook for store openings, lead to share to gain in an otherwise gloomy March for consumer exposure.
On the detractor side, Devyser continued its slump, with the share down by a third year to date. As we write this, the share now trades below its IPO price from 2021, despite clearly approaching cash-flow break-even and strong growth prospects in several areas. Devyser is active within genetic testing where DNA is used to assess disease risk as well as detecting them. Introducing new testing protocols takes time, but they are very sticky once established. The market might have overestimated the speed at which Devyser can establish itself, but we believe it underestimates the duration of the opportunity.
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Balder and Nyfosa suffered from concerns over long-term rates.
While March was less busy in terms of portfolio activity, we take the opportunity to catch-up on some of the changes we have made so far this year.
We have added Vimian as a mid-sized position. This is a Swedish animal health company, focusing mainly on pets. It has a relatively broad product offering partly due to an opportunistic acquisition strategy. As for many others, a string of acquisitions during the pandemic led to some issues, financially as well as operationally. The financial issues were resolved through a rights issue, while the operational issues have been gradually, but not fully, addressed through restructuring and cost savings.
Where does the attraction lie? Q4 was strong with improved earnings quality, as well as stronger cash flow. This positive step has been disregarded in the overall market turmoil, and the share is trading at the low-end of its post-pandemic range, and considerably below levels where the main owner Fidelio (the PE sponsor that owns 60% of the stock) has added shares as recently as this autumn. The valuation does not fully capture the thematic exposure, we believe. With continued margin improvement, a return to more M&A and upside towards sector valuation, we see good risk/reward.
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We have also added smaller stakes in a few interesting growth stories where shares can typically be hard to come by. These include Vertiseit , which describes itself as a supplier of “in-store Experience Management (IXM) platforms”. This can be translated into ‘software that runs all the screens you see in stores’ to simplify. The appeal of the business lies in the execution, we believe. The company is led by owner-operators who have ten-folded annual recurring revenue over the last decade. This is partly due to organic growth but also complemented by successful acquisitions where there are considerable synergies that can be extracted. We visited Grassfish, one of Vertiseit’s subsidiaries, in Vienna earlier this month, and were enthused by the growth opportunities that remain.
We have exited our positions in Hexpol and Sinch (as the buyback programme we alluded to last month led to some outperformance and provided a window of exit).
Our top ten positions as we enter April are as follows:
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Rank
Holding
% of portfolio
Rank
Holding
% of portfolio
1
Acast
4.5%
6
ITAB
3.3%
2
Storytel
4.1%
7
Storskogen
3.2%
3
Sdiptech
4.0%
8
Vimian
3.2%
4
BTS
3.7%
9
Devyser
3.1%
5
Cint
3.5%
10
Vitec
3.0%
Protean Aktiesparfond Norden
MARCH 2026 • WRITTEN BY RICHARD BRÅSE
Aktiesparfonden is a Nordic long-only fund aiming to generate above-market returns over the long term by active investing in value-creating companies and charging a low fee. A fee that is reduced further as the fund grows, sharing the scale advantages with investors.
Aktiesparfonden has, since inception one year ago, delivered a 18.3% return, in the same period the VINX Nordic Cap index is up 12.8% . The fund now manages 1.7bn SEK.
Our communication for Aktiesparfonden is currently only in Swedish, and updates can be found at www.aktiesparfonden.se by clicking the headline “Anslagstavla”.
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Thank you for your long-term perspective and trust in our process.
Thank you for being an investor.
Pontus Dackmo CEO & Investment Manager Protean Funds Scandinavia AB
The monthly reminder
We optimize for performance, not for convenience, size, or marketing. You can withdraw money only quarterly in Select (monthly in Small Cap). We will tell you very little about our holdings. Our strategy is tricky to describe as we aim to be versatile. A hedge fund can lose money even if markets are up. We charge a performance fee if we do well. You do not get a discount if you have a larger sum to invest. We only have a medium-sized track record.
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Aktiesparfonden’s reminder
We aim to generate above index returns over 3-5 years, but there are no guarantees. The fund is traded daily, but that doesn’t mean you should. To beat the index, you need to deviate from the index. This means taking uncomfortable positions. Be aware that the fund can underperform the index during periods. Sometimes, long periods. We lower the fee as the fund grows. The first 10 basis point cut comes at 10bn SEK in AUM.
AUSTIN, Texas — Elon Musk on Monday endorsed a viral video showing what supporters called a liberal “slowly waking up” to the realities of U.S. border policy, replying with a simple “💯” emoji to a clip that has amassed millions of views on his social media platform X in just hours.
AFP
The post, timestamped shortly after 9 a.m. GMT on April 6, 2026, quoted a video originally shared by user @thewriterme with the caption “Watching a liberal slowly wake up.” In the nearly two-minute clip from the TikTok account @triggerpod, a woman with graying blonde hair wearing a blue sweater discusses her evolving views on immigration under the previous administration. She describes having long resisted the idea that Democrats were “deliberately inviting masses of foreigners into the country” to “grow little democrats and create one party state,” but says she has come around to believing the Biden-era policies involved intentional design rather than mere incompetence.
Musk’s terse agreement immediately amplified the video, which already had strong traction. Within hours, his post garnered more than 5.4 million views, 58,000 likes, nearly 10,000 reposts and thousands of replies. The reaction reflects Musk’s pattern of engaging with content that challenges mainstream narratives on immigration, demographics and political strategy — topics he has frequently highlighted since acquiring Twitter (now X) in 2022.
The woman in the clip, speaking in what appears to be a podcast-style setting with a branded mug visible, outlines her reasoning step by step. She notes that before former President Donald Trump “effectively closed” the southern border, she attributed much of the chaos to “incompetence and fecklessness.” But she now sees evidence of purpose: migrants being shipped “all over the country wherever they wanted,” placed on commercial airplanes without identification, and policies that appear inconsistent with stated economic rationales. She questions the logic of emphasizing the need for young workers to support Social Security and Medicare while simultaneously backing family reunification that brings in older relatives, undermining any demographic fix.
The video’s spread and Musk’s endorsement come amid ongoing national debate over immigration in the early months of the current Trump administration. Border encounters dropped sharply after Trump took office in January 2025 and implemented stricter enforcement, according to Department of Homeland Security data. Yet the long-term effects of record crossings during 2021-2024 — when Customs and Border Protection reported more than 10 million encounters — continue to fuel political realignments.
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Commentators on X described the clip as emblematic of a broader phenomenon: voters who once supported expansive immigration policies grappling with visible consequences such as strained social services, housing shortages in sanctuary cities and shifting electoral demographics. Replies to Musk’s post ranged from celebration (“welcome to the real world”) to skepticism about whether such awakenings would translate into lasting political change. Some users shared personal stories of family or friends experiencing similar shifts; others posted memes or historical clips referencing past statements by political figures on demographic engineering.
Musk, who has more than 200 million followers on X, has positioned the platform as a bastion of free speech where such discussions can flourish without what he calls legacy media gatekeeping. His own commentary on immigration has evolved publicly. Once a vocal supporter of high-skilled immigration for technological advancement, Musk has repeatedly warned about unchecked illegal migration, birthrate collapses in Western nations and the risks of cultural dilution. In recent months he has amplified data from government sources showing the scale of releases into the interior under prior policies, including the use of commercial flights for migrants lacking full vetting.
The timing of the post is notable. With midterm elections approaching in 2026 and immigration remaining a top voter concern in national polls, moments of apparent political conversion — whether genuine or performative — gain outsized attention. Conservative media outlets quickly picked up the clip, while progressive voices dismissed it as cherry-picked or misleading. Fact-checking organizations noted that while the Biden administration expanded parole programs and ended the “Remain in Mexico” policy early in its term, officials consistently framed these moves as humanitarian and legal necessities rather than electoral strategy.
Public opinion data from early 2026 shows measurable shifts. Gallup and Pew Research Center surveys indicate that even among self-identified Democrats, support for border security measures has risen since 2024, with many citing record fentanyl deaths, urban homelessness linked to recent arrivals and pressure on public resources. A subset of voters — often described in media as “working-class” or “Hispanic” — have shown movement toward Republican positions on enforcement, a trend some analysts tie directly to lived experience in border states and sanctuary cities.
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The woman in the @triggerpod video does not appear to be a high-profile political figure, but her measured, reflective delivery resonated. She acknowledges possible elements of incompetence but ultimately concludes there is “design behind it,” citing what she calls a “pathological passion for minorities” and a notion that non-white populations are somehow superior — a framing that echoes long-standing “great replacement” theories once confined to fringe discourse but now debated openly on mainstream platforms.
Musk’s engagement adds weight because of his influence. As CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and xAI, and owner of X, he wields significant cultural and economic power. His endorsement style — often single emojis or short phrases — has become a hallmark, instantly validating content for millions. Previous similar interactions have propelled videos, studies and personal testimonies into national conversations.
Critics argue that amplifying such clips risks oversimplifying complex policy debates. Immigration experts point to multiple factors behind border surges: global migration pressures, post-COVID economic recovery, cartel control of smuggling routes and legislative gridlock in Congress that has left the system reliant on executive action. Supporters of more open policies maintain that legal pathways and asylum processing remain essential to American values and labor needs in agriculture, construction and caregiving.
Yet the video and Musk’s reaction underscore a cultural moment in 2026 America: growing skepticism toward institutional explanations and demand for accountability on visible policy outcomes. X’s algorithm, which Musk has tuned to prioritize “unregretted” user engagement, rewards authentic-seeming personal testimonies over polished talking points.
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As of Monday afternoon, the original video continued circulating independently, with users stitching reactions and translations. The Musk post itself generated secondary content, including reaction videos and memes. Platform analytics showed sustained high engagement, suggesting the discussion will dominate timelines for days.
The episode fits a pattern on X where high-profile accounts surface content that legacy media might downplay. Musk has frequently criticized traditional outlets for what he sees as ideological bias on issues like migration, crime statistics involving non-citizens and demographic change. By contrast, X allows direct exposure to raw footage, government data drops and unfiltered user commentary.
Whether this particular “waking up” moment represents a genuine shift in public sentiment or simply another viral flashpoint remains to be seen. Polling will track any sustained movement in voter attitudes heading into the midterms. For now, Elon Musk’s “💯” has once again spotlighted a conversation that millions are having — openly, emotionally and, thanks to the platform he owns, without traditional gatekeepers.
The full context of the woman’s remarks, the scale of border encounters during the prior administration and the policy reversals under Trump provide the backdrop for why such a clip strikes a chord. As one reply to Musk’s post put it: “Truth sets free.” In the polarized information landscape of 2026, moments of apparent political awakening — shared at scale — continue to shape the national dialogue.
Bandwidth is positioned at the center of global cloud communications powering mission-critical voice, messaging, emergency services and AI for enterprises worldwide. In this presentation, we will walk through how Bandwidth is positioned at the center of global cloud communications, powering mission-critical voice, messaging, emergency services and AI for enterprises worldwide.
Our story is anchored in 3 pillars. First, we’re a global communications leader in a large growing market, powering mission-critical voice, messaging and emergency services for some of the world’s largest and most demanding enterprises. Second, we are orchestrating AI, voice and messaging across cloud communications through our open award-winning Maestro platform. Third, we have a highly attractive business model, delivering profitability and capital structure strength that powers durable long-term growth. These pillars define how we compete and how we create long-term value.
Bandwidth powers mission-critical communications across cloud platforms. We combine global infrastructure, software orchestration and AI enablement, giving enterprises the performance, reliability and flexibility they require. This is not just connectivity. This is intelligent communications at global scale.
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The market opportunity ahead of us continues to expand. Our total addressable market is projected to grow from $99 billion in 2024 to $162 billion by 2029 with a 10% compound annual growth rate. That secular growth is a tailwind across our 3 customer categories: Global voice plans, our largest customer category powering the leaders in unified communications, Contact Center as a Service and voice AI platforms is expected to grow above the market growth rate of 8%. Enterprise voice, our smallest and fastest-growing category, providing voice-powered customer experiences for the Global 2000 is expected to grow more than
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Zayed International Airport in Abu Dhabi remained open Monday for scheduled operations, handling a limited number of commercial flights as the UAE’s second major hub continues its gradual recovery from weeks of airspace disruptions linked to broader Middle East tensions.
Zayed International Airport
Also known as Abu Dhabi International Airport or AUH, the facility operated with low delay levels early in the day, according to real-time tracking services. Passengers with confirmed tickets were advised to proceed, though authorities urged travelers to verify status directly with airlines before heading to the terminal. Access remained restricted to ticketed passengers only as a safety measure.
Etihad Airways, the airport’s primary carrier, continued a scaled-back schedule serving approximately 80 destinations worldwide. Monday’s departures included services to Addis Ababa, Amman, Bangkok, Cairo, Hanoi, Malé, Phuket and other regional and long-haul points. Some flights showed minor delays, but overall activity stayed well below pre-crisis volumes, with roughly 450 flights scheduled across the day and an on-time departure forecast around 68%.
The airport’s official website and flight information displays confirmed ongoing operations as of Monday afternoon local time. No fresh full suspension was announced for April 6, unlike temporary halts reported at nearby Dubai International Airport earlier in the week due to separate security incidents. Weather conditions in Abu Dhabi supported normal ground operations, with very low and decreasing delay status reported.
Disruptions trace back to late February when escalating regional conflict involving Iran prompted airspace restrictions across parts of the Gulf. Both Dubai and Abu Dhabi airports saw partial or temporary closures, forcing airlines to reroute, cancel or operate narrow-body aircraft on select corridors. Etihad gradually resumed limited commercial services from March 6, expanding slowly through April while prioritizing safety assessments.
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Travelers faced challenges including rebooking difficulties and stranded passengers in the initial weeks. Many carriers, including Etihad, offered flexible change policies and travel waivers for affected routes. By early April, operations stabilized at roughly 60% capacity at major UAE hubs, with further recovery expected as airspace permissions normalize.
Airport authorities emphasized that passengers should not travel to Zayed International unless contacted by their airline or holding confirmed bookings. Terminal access controls remained in place to manage crowd levels and security. The AUH app and website provided live arrivals, departures and status updates, while Etihad’s flight status page allowed quick checks.
Facilities at the modern terminal, which opened in phases in recent years, continued normal passenger services for those cleared to fly. Amenities such as lounges, dining and retail operated on adjusted hours tied to the reduced flight schedule. Ground handling and baggage services adapted to lower volumes, though some travelers reported longer processing times due to staffing aligned with limited operations.
Regional airlines like Air Arabia maintained select flights from Abu Dhabi alongside Etihad. International carriers including IndiGo, Ethiopian Airlines and Royal Jordanian operated limited routes, with some services showing cancellations or rerouting. Real-time trackers indicated about 15 cancellations Monday, a notable drop from peak disruption periods when thousands of flights were affected across the Gulf.
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The ongoing situation reflects the interconnected nature of Gulf aviation. Abu Dhabi’s airport serves as a key hub for connections to Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, but reduced capacity has shifted some traffic or forced longer routings via alternative gateways. Cargo operations continued with priority on essential goods, helping maintain supply chains despite passenger limitations.
Travel advisories from multiple sources urged caution. Visitors planning trips to or through Abu Dhabi were told to monitor airline communications closely, as schedules could change with short notice due to evolving airspace conditions. Hotels and tour operators in the capital offered flexible cancellation policies for guests impacted by flight changes.
Abu Dhabi Airports, the operator managing Zayed International and other emirate facilities, has worked closely with civil aviation authorities to restore normalcy. The airport’s long-term growth ambitions, including its role as a premium hub, remain intact, though short-term focus stays on safety and phased resumption. Passenger traffic had shown strong pre-crisis growth, with double-digit increases reported in earlier quarters of 2025.
For those flying Monday, low delay indexes suggested smoother processing than in recent weeks. However, experts recommended arriving early, carrying digital copies of documents and preparing for potential gate changes or boarding adjustments. Families, unaccompanied minors and passengers needing assistance received priority where possible.
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Broader UAE aviation recovery includes Dubai International, which also operated on a reduced but improving schedule despite occasional incidents. Sharjah and other smaller airports followed similar patterns. The situation has highlighted the resilience of Gulf carriers while exposing vulnerabilities in regional airspace management during geopolitical stress.
International reactions varied, with some governments issuing updated travel guidance for the UAE. Airlines outside the region adjusted networks, suspending or rerouting services until conditions stabilize. Mediation efforts and diplomatic talks aimed at de-escalation could accelerate full recovery in coming weeks.
Zayed International Airport’s modern design, with its expansive terminals and advanced technology, has helped manage the constrained environment efficiently. Features like contactless processing and digital wayfinding minimized friction for operating flights. The airport continues promoting itself as the Middle East’s fastest-growing hub, with infrastructure ready for higher volumes once restrictions lift.
Travelers with upcoming bookings were encouraged to check Etihad.com or their airline’s app frequently. Rebooking options and waivers remained available for many affected itineraries. Those already in Abu Dhabi or planning ground transfers between emirates could use road options like the Airport Express service linking Abu Dhabi and Dubai, which operated normally.
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As the day progressed Monday, flight tracking sites showed steady activity with arrivals from key cities and departures heading to global destinations. While not yet at full strength, the airport’s openness provided reassurance to passengers and the wider travel industry after prolonged uncertainty.
The situation at Abu Dhabi’s Zayed International Airport underscores how quickly global hubs can adapt while highlighting the need for contingency planning in volatile times. Authorities and airlines continue prioritizing safety, with hopes for fuller schedules as regional stability improves.
Passengers should treat Monday’s operations as a snapshot subject to rapid change. Checking official sources — the airport website, airline apps and live trackers — remains the best way to ensure smooth travel from one of the UAE’s premier gateways.
Private equity groups agreed buyouts worth $172bn in the first quarter of the year
View of London(Image: Getty Images)
The value of acquisitions by private equity firms declined by more than a third during the opening quarter of the year, with dealmakers cautioning that apprehensions over AI’s influence on software companies and the continuing Middle Eastern conflict could accelerate the slowdown.
During the three months to March, private equity firms completed transactions worth $172bn (£129.8bn), representing a 36 per cent fall from the previous quarter according to Dealogic.
It also marked an eight per cent decline from the corresponding period in the prior year.
Buyout professionals and advisers attributed the reduction to firms postponing deal signings amid the persistent market volatility triggered by the Middle Eastern conflict.
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Meanwhile, mounting concerns about AI’s implications for software groups have also dampened expectations that private equity is rebounding following its extended downturn, as reported by City AM.
Software, amongst the buyout sector’s more lucrative areas, has encountered investor exodus in response to swift AI advancement, which has compressed returns.
Attitudes towards software have also deteriorated within the private credit sector, amid increasing investor worries that the software and technology businesses comprising a substantial proportion of the industry’s lending portfolios were particularly susceptible to being supplanted or disrupted by AI.
Speaking to the Financial Times, the head of a large European buyout group, said: “We’re in one of the most turbulent periods that I can remember.
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“Things are grinding down quite quickly now in terms of activity.”
The executive cautioned that the most severe economic consequences of the conflict have yet to materialise, while the potential disruption to software firms’ business models could have an even greater bearing on dealmaking over the coming months.
Within the private credit sector, investors have retreated towards the security of liquid assets, such as equities and bonds, while others have sought refuge in cash and money market funds.
The substantial quarter-on-quarter decline in the value of buyout deals follows a resurgence in the second half of last year, with global deal value climbing to over $900bn in 2025, propelled by a handful of megadeals.
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These included the $23.7bn acquisition of Walgreens Boots Alliance, spearheaded by Sycamore Partners, while Aligned Data Centres was acquired by a consortium of investors for approximately $40bn.
However, the early-year rebound from a period of volatility was abruptly halted by the conflict, also extinguishing the optimism the industry had harboured regarding the state of private equity in 2026.
The value of global private equity exits in the first three months likewise fell to $162bn, representing a decline of one-third from the preceding quarter.
This also dragged the value of global private equity exits back to levels comparable with the same period the previous year.
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Certain funds are hesitant to reduce the valuations of their portfolio companies, many of which were acquired during the peak valuation surge between 2020 and 2021, while some institutional investors have grown wary of the market due to its underperformance compared to public markets, which have benefited from strong-performing AI stocks.
Bristol is about to join the big league of British live entertainment, with the city’s forthcoming Aviva Arena setting its sights on staging the Brit Awards within its first years of operation.
The 20,000-capacity indoor venue, which is taking shape on the historic Filton Airfield in north Bristol, the very site where every British-built Concorde rolled off the production line, is on track to open in late 2028. Its backers believe it will plug a glaring gap in the country’s events infrastructure, given that the south-west remains the only English region without a major arena.
The project sits at the heart of a broader development called YTL Live, which will occupy the three vast Brabazon Hangars once used to assemble supersonic aircraft. The central and largest hangar will house the arena itself, flanked by conference and exhibition spaces designed to keep the complex busy well beyond gig nights. Organisers expect the venue to stage upwards of 120 major events each year, generating an estimated £1 billion for the wider Bristol economy over its first decade.
Andrew Billingham, chief executive of the Aviva Arena, said the ambition extends well beyond regional pride. The venue wants a place on the global touring circuit, and the Brit Awards sit firmly in its crosshairs following the ceremony’s well-received stint in Manchester earlier this year.
The arena’s specification suggests those ambitions are not merely fanciful. Plans include 20 state-of-the-art dressing rooms, extensive production facilities and what is billed as Europe’s largest services yard, with capacity for up to 60 touring lorries at once. A new railway station, Bristol Brabazon, is due to open this autumn, giving the site a direct public transport link that many rival venues lack.
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Behind the project is YTL, a Malaysian infrastructure conglomerate and the largest Malaysian investor in the United Kingdom, whose British portfolio already includes Wessex Water. The group acquired the Filton site roughly a decade ago with a vision that went far beyond housebuilding, it set about creating an entire mixed-use community encompassing homes, workplaces and leisure. Construction of the arena is expected to support more than 2,000 jobs, with a further 500 permanent roles once the doors open.
For Bristol, a city whose creative economy already punches well above its weight, the arrival of a venue of this scale represents a significant commercial moment. If Billingham and his team can deliver on the Brit Awards pledge, it would mark the latest step in the ceremony’s journey away from its traditional London base, and confirm that the south-west finally has a stage to match its cultural ambition.
Amy Ingham
Amy is a newly qualified journalist specialising in business journalism at Business Matters with responsibility for news content for what is now the UK’s largest print and online source of current business news.
Scott Kaufman, aka Treading Softly, learned about investing firsthand from over a decade of financial sector experience. He is the lead analyst for Dividend Kings providing actionable insight into high quality dividend growing and undervalued opportunities. His focus is to see a bountiful harvest of cash dividends and strong capital gains, providing a robust total return.
Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of CI either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
Kody’s Dividends, Justin Law, and Rachel Kaufman are part of the Dividend Kings team.
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