Norway's wealth fund excludes two firms from Israel, Russia

FE Team | Published: December 04, 2024 23:38:42

OSLO, Dec 4, (AFP): Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest with assets of around $1.8 trillion, has excluded an Israeli and a Russian group on ethical grounds.
The Norwegian central bank, which manages the fund, said late Tuesday that it had divested its holdings in Israeli telecoms group Bezeq.
The company is accused of supplying services to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, considered illegal under international law.
The Council on Ethics, an advisory body that provides investment guidance for the fund, said it had noted Bezeq's assertion that it also provides telecom services to Palestinian areas in the West Bank.
But, it said, this does not "outweigh the fact that the company, through its physical presence and provision of telecom services to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, is helping to facilitate the maintenance and expansion of these settlements."
"By doing so, the company is itself contributing to the violation of international law."
The fund also sold its holdings in Evraz, a Russian steel company listed on the London stock market, which supplies steel to the Russian defence industry, thereby enabling "Russia to continue its unlawful war of aggression against Ukraine", the Council said.
Since the Council's "numerous" questions to Evraz had gone unanswered, it had recommended that the fund exclude the company from its portfolio.
As of June 30, the fund controlled 0.76 percent of Bezeq, a stake then valued at almost $23.7 million, and 0.96 percent of Evraz, then worth $1.4 million.
Norway's central bank announces its divestment decisions only after the sale of its holdings.
The fund, which invests the Norwegian state's oil and gas revenues, is the world's biggest single investor, with stakes in nearly 8,800 companies in 71 countries, representing 1.5 percent of the world's total market capitalisation.