The largest Norwegian sovereign wealth fund in the world posted "historic results" in 2019. In fact, it posted a return of 165 billion euros (1692 billion crowns), an increase of 19.9%. , the Bank of Norway announced on Thursday.
" 2019 has been a good year in the history of the fund, driven by positive stock market returns in all of the fund's main markets and in all sectors, " said outgoing CEO Yngve Slyngstad. " We are a fund with a horizon of thirty years, which takes things calmly during troubled times, " said the general manager, in reaction to the stock market fall caused by the coronavirus epidemic. “ We are obviously following market movements and they are considerable these days. But it is a situation which is difficult to analyze. And therefore not a typical situation where we act, where we buy or sell, ”he said.
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Set up in 1990 to boost Norway's oil revenues, this fund weighed 976.8 billion euros (10,088 billion crowns) as of December 31, 2019. It has interests in more than 9,000 companies worldwide, which which represents 1.4% of global capitalization. Its largest holdings include Apple, Microsoft, Nestlé, Amazon and Alphabet, which is the parent company of Google.
In 2019, its equity investments (70.8% of assets) returned 26% while bond investments (26.5% of assets) returned 7.6%. Finally, investments in real estate (2.7% of assets) gained 6.8%.
