Norway’s sovereign wealth fund has cleaned up its assets. He has in fact withdrawn from two groups for ethical reasons, the country’s Central Bank said Tuesday evening. On the one hand, from the Israeli telecoms group Bezeq. The latter is accused of providing his services to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are illegal under international law. The Israeli company also claims to serve territories inhabited by Palestinians, as noted in its argument by the Ethics Council, the advisory body which guides the fund’s investments.
71 billion euros: the Norwegian sovereign fund continues to reap profits
More “this cannot compensate for the fact that[elle]through its presence and the provision of telecoms services to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, contributes to facilitating the maintenance and expansion of Israeli settlements (…) thus contributing to violating international law,” tackles the Ethics Council.
At the same time, the fund also divested from Evraz, a Russian steelmaker listed in London. Reason: supply of steel to the Russian defense industry. Which facilitates “Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine”, points out the Ethics Council.
The Bank of Norway always announces its divestment decisions after selling its shares in the companies concerned. As of June 30, the fund owned 0.76% of Bezeq, a share then valued at nearly $23.7 million. And 0.96% of Evraz, or a value of 1.4 million dollars.
Ethics and transparency required
This is not the first time that Norway’s sovereign wealth fund has divested from companies. Since 2004, it has been subject to very strict – and numerous – ethical rules. These notably prohibit certain investments and require transparency for those made. Thus, since this date, it has withdrawn from numerous companies involved in the manufacture of anti-personnel mines, tobacco, but also nuclear weapons. Notably from the French giant Safran in 2006.
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, however, refused to join the movement to financially boycott Israel launched by NGOs. He thus maintains his investments in more than 70 Israeli companies. The most powerful of which: the pharmaceutical group Teva, of which it holds 3% of the shares. The latter, world leader in generic medicines, is accused of having a production unit in the Israeli colony of Barkan in the occupied West Bank.
Conversely, other sovereign funds – notably those of Ireland and New Zealand – have gradually disengaged in recent years from banks and supermarkets operating in occupied Palestinian territory. Even more so after the attacks of October 7 and Israel’s response to Gaza. To see if this first disengagement of the Norwegian fund in an Israeli company will be followed by others.
645,000 euros per minute: the gigantic Norwegian sovereign fund accumulates 168 billion euros in just 6 months
A fund at the top
In total, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund has shares in nearly 8,800 companies and 71 countries. It owns on average 1.5% of all listed groups on the planet. Among them are giants in the tech sector, such as Apple, Microsoft or Samsung, or in the food industry such as Nestlé.
In the third quarter, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund collected nearly 71 billion euros, benefiting from the stock market upturn linked to the fall in interest rates. Its yield thus reached 4.4% between July and September, which helped bring its total value to 1,597 billion euros (18,870 billion Norwegian crowns).
Established in the early 1990s, this fund is today the largest individual investor in the world. It is fueled by all of the Norwegian state’s oil profits. Its objective is to make this revenue grow in order to finance the future expenditure of the Scandinavian state.
(With AFP)
