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Norway's new treasure keeper: Nicolai Tangen added $ 44 billion to Norwegians' wealth in the third quarter.
At $ 1,161 billion, the sovereign wealth fund is heavier again than it was before the corona pandemic began
Photo: Gwladys Fouche / REUTERS
The boom in US tech stocks is benefiting the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund in the corona pandemic.
In the third quarter, its value increased by 412 billion crowns (around 44 billion dollars).
Overall, the financial markets were still characterized by the uncertainty in connection with the pandemic in the summer, said the new fund manager
Nicolai Tangen
(54) on Thursday.
"Nonetheless, the equity markets produced good returns, largely thanks to strong performance in the US technology sector."
The former hedge fund manager, billionaire and art collector Tangen had given up millions of dollars a few months ago and given up his job to take up the post of Norway's top money manager.
"I want to be head of the oil fund, and I have only one goal: to create prosperity for future generations," Tangen said before taking office on September 1, 2020.
The fund, which was founded in 1996, currently has a volume of 1,161 billion dollars, making it the largest of its kind in the world. Every citizen of Norway accounts for around 217,000 dollars.
The fund holds shares in around 9200 companies worldwide and makes up 1.5 percent of all listed shares.
It equates to around $ 217,000 for every Norwegian citizen
In the third quarter alone, the world's largest sovereign wealth fund achieved a return of 4.3 percent, which is mainly due to the equity holdings.
In the USA in particular, the stock market developed strongly in the summer quarter: the index of the technology exchange Nasdaq managed a plus of ten percent, the S&P 500 and the Dow-Jones gained around eight percent.
Tangens' operational predecessor,
Trond Grande (53)
, warned of further turbulence on the financial markets in mid-July.
In the first quarter of 2020, Norway's sovereign wealth fund had its worst quarter in existence with a loss of $ 153 billion.
In the period from April to the end of June, however, Norway's money managers managed the exact opposite: With a surplus of 131 billion dollars, the fund had the best quarter in its history.
In the third quarter, around 44 billion dollars were added: The corona slump from the spring is more than balanced - and Norway's citizens are more affluent than at the end of 2019, before the pandemic began.
Due to the size and the good past performance of the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, investors around the world often look closely at how the state fund managers in Norway are doing.
The total portfolio showed a negative return of 3.4 percent in the first half of the year, with declines of 6.8 percent for stocks and 1.6 percent for unlisted properties, while the value of fixed-income investments fell 5.1 percent as a result of the fall in interest rates rose.
The worst performers in the first half of the year were oil companies, whose stocks fell 33.1 percent due to the decline in crude oil prices, while technology companies posted the strongest performance, up 14.2 percent.
At the corporate level, tech firms Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple contributed the most to performance, while oil giant Shell and banks HSBC and JP Morgan Chase performed the worst.
la / Reuters
