Norway's sovereign wealth fund, managed by the Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), invested in 72 countries and 9,146 companies as at the end of 2017, according to Aleksander Lee Olsen, advisor to the communications and external relations department for NBIM on Friday.
Olsen told Anadolu Agency that the fund in 2017 saw 13.7 percent returns or 1,028 billion kroner.
He noted that equity investments returned 19.4 percent, while investments in unlisted real estate returned 7.5 percent.
The fund's market value was more than $1 trillion at the end of 2017.
NBIM manages the fund which has ethical exclusions for investments in coal-fuel companies. The NBIM follows the ethical recommendations made by the Council of Ethics, which is appointed by Norway's Ministry of Finance.
In April 2016, the first tranche of exclusions included companies that work on coal and coal-based energy. At that time, companies banned from Norway's fund included many U.S. and Chinese firms, including China Coal Energy, AES, Okinawa Electric Power and Peabody Energy.
'On Feb. 1, 2016, the Ministry of Finance introduced the product-based coal criterion for observation and exclusion after deliberations in Parliament. We published the first tranche of coal exclusions in April 2016, the second in December 2016, and the third in March 2017. In total, we have excluded 69 companies and placed 13 companies under observation based on this criterion,' Olsen said.
'In 2017, we have also performed a full review of all companies placed under observation in 2016 in order to assess the status of their business plans,' he added.
Norway, Europe’s largest oil producer and the world’s third-largest natural gas exporter after Russia and Qatar, holds the world's biggest fund.
The fund's exclusions were based on new criteria introduced by the government in February 2016 targeting companies that base at least 30 percent of their activities or revenues on coal.
By Murat Temizer
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr