The 2009 returns of the fund were record-high, Yngve Slyngstad, CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), told the press today. After a miserable minus 23,3 percent return in 2008, the Fund in 2009 got a serious revenge and boosted returns with 613 billion NOK.
That is 4,1 percentage points higher than the return on the benchmark portfolio, a press release from the Bank of Norway reads.
The fund’s market value was 2 640 billion NOK at the end of 2009, up from 2 275 billion NOK a year earlier. Capital inflows of 169 billion NOK were the lowest since 2004 and less than half of the record amount in 2008.
The Fund’s Annual Report shows that investments have been made in a total of 57 Russian companies, of which the biggest investment has been made in Gazprom. The Fund controls 0,65 percent of the Gazprom stocks, a stake which has a value of 5.46 billion NOK. Lukoil is the second biggest of the Fund’s assets with 1,07 percent of the stocks valued 2.95 billion NOK.
As BarentsObserver previously reported, the Fund last year decided to get rid of its shares in mining and metallurgy company Norilsk Nickel following the company’s bad ecological record.
In Finland, the Fund has invested 4.68 billion NOK in Nokia (1,69 percent of the shares) and 2.59 billion in UPM-Kymmene OYJ and 1.81 billion NOK in Stora Enso OYJ.
The Fund’s biggest asset in Sweden is the Nordea Bank (3.1 billion NOK) and the Ericsson company (2.77 billion NOK).
