The supervisor of the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund pledged Tuesday to push main oil and gasoline corporations to hurry up preparations for the “inescapable” transition away from planet-warming fossil fuels whereas additionally twisting arms in U.S. boardrooms to take management of government pay.
Hours earlier, Norway’s Authorities Pension Fund International reported the most important annual return in its historical past, a efficiency led by U.S. know-how corporations and Danish pharmaceutical firm Novo Nordisk, which makes the diabetes-turned-weight loss drug Ozempic.
The fund, which invests Norway’s income from oil and gasoline, owns round 1.5 per cent of all shares for corporations listed globally, together with giant stakes in Exxon Mobil, Chevron, TotalEnergies, Shell and BP. It has used the property to foyer for a speedier transition to sustainable power and voting for extra carbon discount targets.
“It’s a balancing act between sustainability and profitability. We are attempting to push them to be ready for the eventual and inescapable transition,” Nicolai Tangen, the supervisor of the portfolio often known as the Oil Fund, informed The Related Press.
Tangen reported that regardless of “excessive inflation and geopolitical turmoil,” the fund’s worth ballooned 16 per cent final 12 months to fifteen,765 billion kroner (round USD $ 1,500 billion). That corresponds to $273,000 for each inhabitant of Norway, which has a inhabitants of 5.5 million.
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He stated the fund additionally benefited in 2023 from market pleasure over the fast adoption of synthetic intelligence know-how resembling ChatGPT, whereas additionally revealing that managers used AI to “optimize deployment of capital” in its personal investments.
Nevertheless, Tangen stated the choice he was most pleased with was swooping in to take a big stake in Swiss financial institution UBS the day after its emergency buyout of former rival Credit score Suisse.
“We thought it was a extremely thrilling alternative. The share worth recovered and we expect there’s huge scope for extra worth,” he informed the AP.
The six largest contributors to the fund’s development have been the U.S know-how corporations Microsoft, Apple, NVIDIA, Meta, Amazon and Alphabet. Electrical automotive maker Tesla got here in seventh.
Tangen stated the fund nonetheless would proceed to battle “extreme” government pay in American boardrooms. The fund voted towards greater than 50 per cent of all pay offers price greater than USD $20 million.
Denmark-based Novo Nordisk was the subsequent highest contributor. Ozempic was initially developed as a diabetes therapy, however its development accelerated in 2023 as extra individuals sought it out as an weight problems therapy. Nova Nordisk additionally makes a better dose model of the identical treatment that’s bought as a weight reduction drug underneath the model title Wegovy.
The vast majority of the fund is made up of shares, but it surely additionally contains authorities bonds, actual property and renewable power infrastructure.
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