Norway’s fund reevaluates assets

Article Excerpt

At $1 trillion U.S. in assets, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund made headlines in November 2017 with the news it would consider selling its oil and gas stocks over time. Those stocks make up around 3.6% of the fund’s total assets. Environmental groups in the Scandinavian country—itself one of the world’s leading oil and gas exporters—praised the decision. Still the move was more about cutting risk for the world’s biggest sovereign fund than about getting out of oil and gas stocks. Currently, the fund maintains large positions in companies around the world. Its top holdings include Apple, Nestle, Royal Dutch Shell, Alphabet, Microsoft and Novartis. Despite those big names, the fund has averaged an annual return of just 4.1% since its startup in 1996. To boost that figure, it recently proposed investing in private infrastructure projects such as toll roads, airports, seaports and so on. That would see it follow the lead of most other major global pension funds. In April, the Norwegian government refused…