Norway’s state pension fund said it has decided to withdraw from investments in 11 Israeli companies and to terminate contracts with all external managers in Israel because of the situation in the Gaza Strip. Norway’s State Pension Fund is the largest sovereign fund in the world worth almost two trillion dollars. It is filled with excess oil revenues. The fund owns about 1.5 per cent of the world’s shares.
In a statement released on August 11, the organisation said that as of the end of June it had invested in 61 Israeli companies, 11 of which were not part of the index the fund is targeting. All of the fund’s investments in Israel will be limited to companies in the index, but even those companies will not receive new investments.
As Bloomberg notes, Norwegian Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg ordered a review of all investments in Israel in early August. This came after the Aftenposten newspaper reported that Bet Shemesh Engines, a company in the sovereign fund’s portfolio, maintains fighter jets used in attacks on the Gaza Strip.
For a long time, the fund tried to stay out of politics. However, in 2022, the fund decided to sell its Russian assets due to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops.
