The State Pension Fund of Norway, which is the world’s largest sovereign reserve fund and the largest “oil reservoir” on the planet, has relied on women. Reported by CNBC.
The fund, which has about $ 1.3 trillion under management, is trying to encourage companies it invests in to take on more women in leadership positions. The organization said that to maintain gender diversity, the percentage of board members of either gender should not be below 30 percent. As noted by the TV channel, the State Pension Fund of Norway owns small shares in more than 9 thousand enterprises. This is approximately 1.5 percent of all publicly traded companies that are traded in 74 countries around the world.
In addition to the fight for gender equality, the Norwegian Reserve Fund has been actively involved in its “greening” in recent years. The organization began to abandon investments in oil and gas three years ago. At the end of January 2021, it became known that the fund would completely withdraw from investments in companies that are engaged in the exploration and production of hydrocarbons. The reasons were financial losses due to coronavirus – by the end of 2020, oil and gas companies included in the portfolio of the Norwegian Reserve Fund brought it a loss of $ 10 billion.
At the same time, 2020 is one of the best years for an organization in history. The cumulative return on his portfolio was $ 123 billion. In particular, the money was brought by the bet on the technology sector, the shares of which grew rapidly during the crisis. In return for hydrocarbons, the fund’s management plans to increase investments in renewable energy sources. In the capital of the fund, they should account for about 1 percent of the funds.