Norway's oil fund is already scratching the high profits of the previous year in the middle of the year.
But why is the world's largest sovereign wealth fund so successful?
The Norwegian Central Bank gives insights.
Oslo - Norway's oil fund is seen as insurance for future generations - as insurance if at some point oil can no longer be extracted.
The concept works: In the past six months, the “Foreign Pension Fund”, as the oil fund is actually called, again achieved high profits: a whopping 95 billion euros.
Three particular investments paid off in particular.
At the end of the second quarter, the total value of the fund, which is considered to be the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world, was 11.67 trillion crowns.
That translates to 1.11 trillion euros.
As the Norwegian Bank announced on Wednesday, the equivalent of 14.1 billion euros were withdrawn from the fund in the past six months.
Of this, Norway invested 72.4 percent in stocks, 25.1 percent in bonds and 0.1 percent in unlisted infrastructure and renewable energy.
Oil funds on the road to success: this is how the Norwegians invest their oil money
The return in the first half of 2021 was 9.4 percent.
That corresponds to 990 billion Norwegian kroner or 95 billion euros.
“Equity investments made the biggest contribution to returns in the first half of the year,” said Nicolai Tangen, head of Norges Bank Investment Management.
Investments in the energy and financial sectors and in technology companies would have paid off in particular.
The "Foreign Pension Fund" is fed with income from Norwegian oil and gas production.
The central bank manages it on behalf of the Norwegian Ministry of Finance and invests in thousands of companies worldwide, including large corporations such as Microsoft, Apple and Amazon.
Pension funds abroad: Simplified investment policy should bring even more returns
In addition to industry giants, the Norwegian central bank has also invested in smaller companies from emerging countries in the past.
In April 2021, however, the Ministry of Finance announced in Oslo that it would increasingly rely on large corporations in order to simplify investment policy.
The high profits in the first half of 2021 are not really surprising.
Last year, too, the fund achieved a profit equivalent to around 102 billion euros (12 percent return).
This year, the oil fund scratched these numbers halfway through.
(jo / dpa)
