Nicolai Tangen, CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management, addresses a press conference on the annual results of his company for 2024 at Norges Bank in Oslo, Norway, January 29, 2025.
Ole Berg-Rusten | AFP | Getty images
The Norwegian government is under increasing pressure to leave the country $ 1.8 billion The sovereign heritage fund is investing in certain defense companies, the opposition parties describing a long -standing ban as “illogical” in the current security landscape.
Government Government Fund, Global Norway, The greatest sovereign fund in the worldWas prevented from taking holdings in companies that have produced critical components for nuclear weapons since the early 2000s.
Below ethical directivesThe fund was also prohibited to invest in companies involved in the production of cluster ammunition, anti-personal and tobacco land mines, among others.
The country’s central-right conservative party said it had come for the government to raise the ban on taking holdings in certain defense companies, citing the large-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the “significant rearmatory” of countries like China in recent years.
“We are currently faced with the most serious security crisis since the Second World War. There is an urgent need for increased investment in the Western defense industry to protect our own security and that of our allies,” Tina Bru, deputy leader of the Conservative Party, at CNBC by e-mail.
In his opinion, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre should seek to modify the ethical framework of the country’s heritage fund to ensure that companies considered vital for West’s security are not excluded.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Finance of Norway refused to comment when he is contacted by CNBC, saying that the government would first answer a similar issue in the Norwegian Parliament.
Protesters with Palestinian flags during a demonstration outside the Norges Bank headquarters in Oslo, Norway, Thursday, March 27, 2025.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty images
The fund previously excluded the British defense entrepreneur BAE systems Due to the production of key components by the company for nuclear weapons and the American defense entrepreneur Lockheed morning corp Due to cluster ammunition.
“In the west, critical weapons are bought from companies which are currently excluded from investments in the oil fund. It is illogical that Norvy’s Pension Fund is prohibited from investing in the same companies as the Government obtains through the state budget,” said Bru.
The Labor Party of the Center-Gauche de Norway is expected to govern alone until new legislative elections are held in September. The country’s power coalition government collapsed earlier in the year in the intestine struggles on the European Union energy guidelines.
A founding member of NATO, Norway is not part of the EU but works in close collaboration with the block as a member of the broader European Economic Area.
Defense stocks increasing
The debate on how the Norway wealth fund should react to the evolutionary security landscape comes at a higher time of defense expenses and The outbreak of industry profits, governments react to a high geopolitical risk.
Defense actions have generally been excluded from portfolios according to environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors due to ethical concerns concerning the Association of the Sector with the War.
In recent months, however, ESG fund managers seem to be more and more comfortable with the holding of defense companies.
A spokesperson for Norges Bank Investment Management, who manages the Wealth Fund, refused to comment when he was asked for a review of the fund’s ethical directives.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store delivered a speech at the Equinor fall 2024 conference, a Norwegian multinational energy company in Oslo, Norway on November 26, 2024.
Thomas Fure | AFP | Getty images
One of the largest investors in the world, the Norway sovereign heritage fund was created in the 1990s to invest in the country’s oil and gas sector. To date, the fund has put money In more than 8,650 companies in more than 60 countries around the world.
Hans Andreas Limber, a legislator of the right -wing progress group in the Scandinavian country, recently presented a bill on private members to abolish the prohibition of nuclear weapons from the fund Financial time. He would have described the ban as “hypocrite”.
Ida Kassa Johannesesen, head of the Saxo Bank commercial ESG, said the Norway Ministry of Finance should not be influenced by political pressure to raise the fundamental weapons of the fund.
“In the end, the Norwegian Finance Ministry which is responsible for the supervision of the work carried out by Norges Bank Investment Management (which is responsible for the management of the fund), has fiduciary duties and will decide the next line of conduct,” said Johannesen by email by e-mail.
“The actions of the ministry should not be influenced by public opinion but rather the best interests of the beneficiaries of the fund (Norway and its current and future generations) and the laws and regulations which govern the mandate of the fund,” she added.
