Latest news with #GwladysFouche
GMA Network
a day ago
- Business
- GMA Network
Norway wealth fund terminates Israel asset management contracts
A general view of the Norwegian central bank, where Norway's sovereign wealth fund is situated, in Oslo, Norway, March 6, 2018. REUTERS/ Gwladys Fouche/ File photo ARENDAL, Norway — Norway's $2-trillion sovereign wealth fund said on Monday it is terminating contracts with asset managers handling its Israeli investments and has divested parts of its portfolio in the country over the situation in Gaza and the West Bank. The announcement follows an urgent review launched last week following media reports that the fund had built a stake in an Israeli jet engine group that provides services to Israel's armed forces, including the maintenance of fighter jets. "All investments in Israeli companies that have been managed by external managers will be moved in-house and managed internally," the fund said. The fund, an arm of Norway's central bank, which held stakes in 61 Israeli companies as of June 30, in recent days divested stakes in 11 of these, it said in a statement, without naming the groups. "We have now completely sold out of these positions," the fund said, adding that it continued to review Israeli companies for potential divestments. The review will also lead to improved due diligence, it added. "The fund's investments in Israel will now be limited to companies that are in the equity benchmark index. However, we will not be invested in all Israeli companies in the index," it said. The fund, which owns stakes in 8,700 companies worldwide, held shares in 65 Israeli companies at the end of 2024, valued at $1.95 billion, its records show. In the last year it sold its stakes in an Israeli energy company and a telecoms group over ethics concerns, and its ethics watchdog has said it is reviewing whether to divest holdings in five banks. Norway's parliament in June rejected a proposal for the fund to divest from all companies with activities in the occupied Palestinian territories. — Reuters
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Norway lawmakers to oppose blocking wealth fund investment in firms in Israeli-occupied areas
By Gwladys Fouche OSLO (Reuters) -Lawmakers were on Wednesday debating whether Norway's $1.9 trillion sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, should divest from all companies with activities in the occupied Palestinian territories. A formal vote was expected around 3 p.m. Parliament was expected to reject a wholesale boycott. The minority Labour government has for months been resisting pressure from pro-Palestinian campaigners to instruct the fund to divest from all firms with ties to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. "We have an established ethical regime for the fund," Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg told the chamber in a debate on several aspects of the way the fund is run. "We divest from the companies that contribute to Israel's breach of international law, but we do not divest from all companies that are present on the ground." Lawmaker Ingrid Fiskaa from the small Socialist Left opposition party told the chamber: "Without Norwegian oil fund money, it would be more difficult for Israeli authorities to demolish the homes of Palestinian families." The United Nations' special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, wrote to Stoltenberg to alert him to what she called the "structural entanglement of Israeli corporations ... in the machinery of the occupation both in the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, and the violence that sustains it". "International corporations benefiting from (the Norwegian fund's) investments are critical components of the infrastructure sustaining the economy of the occupation," she wrote, in a letter dated May 20. Stoltenberg replied that the government was "confident that the investments do not violate Norway's obligations under international law". He noted that the fund follows ethical guidelines set by parliament, and that compliance is monitored by a separate body. That watchdog has over the past year recommended divestments from Israeli petrol station chain Paz and telecoms company Bezeq and is looking at more potential divestments in Israel.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Exclusive-Norway set to reject calls for blanket ban by wealth fund on companies in Israeli-occupied areas, source says
By Gwladys Fouche OSLO (Reuters) -Norway's parliament is poised to reject campaigners' calls to instruct its $1.8 trillion wealth fund to boycott any company selling products and services in the occupied Palestinian territories, according to a person familiar with the process. A majority in the Norwegian parliament's finance committee has decided that only companies that can be linked to the violation of international law should be excluded from the fund's portfolio, not just any companies with a presence in these areas, the person said. The International Court of Justice said last year Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories was illegal and it should pull out as soon as possible, in a ruling that Tel Aviv rejected as "fundamentally wrong" and one-sided. Currently, the fund, which operates under ethical guidelines set by the Norwegian parliament, has blacklisted 11 companies for assisting Israel's occupation, the last of which was Israeli petrol station chain Paz earlier this month. At the end of last year the fund had just over $2 billion invested in 65 Israeli companies, or 0.1% of its total. Since the start of the war in Gaza, the fund has faced growing pressure to divest from Israeli companies and all companies active in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. That would effectively force it to sell billions of dollars in stakes in major Western brands, some of which have already faced consumer boycott calls especially in Muslim-majority countries because they were perceived as friendly to Israel. Campaigners want the Norwegian government to take the same action on Israel-linked investments as it did on Russian ones in 2022, when three days after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine it instructed the fund to dispose of all of its holdings in Russia. However, the decision by the parliamentary finance committee means no blanket ban on Israeli firms or on multinationals with global sales only because their products and services are available in occupied Palestinian territories. "If a company sells a generic product, which Israeli settlers buy, then this should not be sufficient to sell the fund out of the company," said the person familiar with the committee's decision, adding it would constitute a wider interpretation of the guidelines. "But if we are speaking of specific products for, say, surveillance that are made specifically for the needs of Israeli settlers, then that is something completely different." The committee's decision is part of its assessment of the government's annual filing on the wealth fund, which is due to be debated in parliament on June 4, with a vote expected the same day. Lawmakers are expected to vote along their parties' lines as set in the parliamentary finance committee's conclusions. The decision will be closely watched, given Norway's fund, which owns 1.5% of the world's listed shares across 9,000 companies, is seen as a leader in the field of investing focused on environmental, social and governance issues. The finance committee also decided the fund should maintain a ban on investments in defence contractors that make components for nuclear weapons, such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing or Airbus. As Reuters earlier reported, political parties have debated whether to remove the ban given the changed security environment created by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the need to develop the Western defence industry. But ultimately a majority of the finance committee decided against, concerned that its lifting would make managing the fund's ethical risk more complex. The fund already owns shares in defence companies that sell weapons to Israel, including Germany's Rheinmetall and Italy's Leonardo, but not in the larger ones, like Lockheed Martin or Northrop Grumman. ($1 = 10.2958 Norwegian crowns)
Straits Times
27-05-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
Norway set to reject calls for blanket ban by wealth fund on companies in Israeli-occupied areas, source says
An armed police officer guards the main entrance to the Norwegian parliament in Oslo, Norway April 3, 2024. REUTERS/Gwladys Fouche/File Photo Norway set to reject calls for blanket ban by wealth fund on companies in Israeli-occupied areas, source says OSLO - Norway's parliament is poised to reject campaigners' calls to instruct its $1.8 trillion wealth fund to boycott any company selling products and services in the occupied Palestinian territories, according to a person familiar with the process. A majority in the Norwegian parliament's finance committee has decided that only companies that can be linked to the violation of international law should be excluded from the fund's portfolio, not just any companies with a presence in these areas, the person said. The International Court of Justice said last year Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories was illegal and it should pull out as soon as possible, in a ruling that Tel Aviv rejected as "fundamentally wrong" and one-sided. Currently, the fund, which operates under ethical guidelines set by the Norwegian parliament, has blacklisted 11 companies for assisting Israel's occupation, the last of which was Israeli petrol station chain Paz earlier this month. At the end of last year the fund had just over $2 billion invested in 65 Israeli companies, or 0.1% of its total. Since the start of the war in Gaza, the fund has faced growing pressure to divest from Israeli companies and all companies active in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. That would effectively force it to sell billions of dollars in stakes in major Western brands, some of which have already faced consumer boycott calls especially in Muslim-majority countries because they were perceived as friendly to Israel. Campaigners want the Norwegian government to take the same action on Israel-linked investments as it did on Russian ones in 2022, when three days after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine it instructed the fund to dispose of all of its holdings in Russia. However, the decision by the parliamentary finance committee means no blanket ban on Israeli firms or on multinationals with global sales only because their products and services are available in occupied Palestinian territories. "If a company sells a generic product, which Israeli settlers buy, then this should not be sufficient to sell the fund out of the company," said the person familiar with the committee's decision, adding it would constitute a wider interpretation of the guidelines. "But if we are speaking of specific products for, say, surveillance that are made specifically for the needs of Israeli settlers, then that is something completely different." The committee's decision is part of its assessment of the government's annual filing on the wealth fund, which is due to be debated in parliament on June 4, with a vote expected the same day. Lawmakers are expected to vote along their parties' lines as set in the parliamentary finance committee's conclusions. The decision will be closely watched, given Norway's fund, which owns 1.5% of the world's listed shares across 9,000 companies, is seen as a leader in the field of investing focused on environmental, social and governance issues. The finance committee also decided the fund should maintain a ban on investments in defence contractors that make components for nuclear weapons, such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing or Airbus. As Reuters earlier reported, political parties have debated whether to remove the ban given the changed security environment created by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the need to develop the Western defence industry. But ultimately a majority of the finance committee decided against, concerned that its lifting would make managing the fund's ethical risk more complex. The fund already owns shares in defence companies that sell weapons to Israel, including Germany's Rheinmetall and Italy's Leonardo, but not in the larger ones, like Lockheed Martin or Northrop Grumman. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How should Norway spend its cash? Solve global problems, says citizen panel
By Gwladys Fouche OSLO (Reuters) -Norway's $1.8 trillion wealth fund, the world's largest, should invest more money in sectors addressing global challenges such as climate change and health and accept it may get lower returns on these investments, a citizens' panel said on Tuesday. The initiative, a nationwide consultation on what the country should do with its wealth, was the brainchild of seven non-governmental organisations who wanted to bring into the public debate voices from society that are not usually heard. The 56 Norwegians selected to represent the population - based on age, gender, place of residence, education and attitude towards climate change - met between January and May to create recommendations for lawmakers. They discussed how to spend the cash from the fund, which pools state oil and gas revenue and has a current value equivalent to each man, woman and child owning $326,000. "A specific percentage of the oil fund should be set aside for sustainable investments where we accept higher risk and lower returns to promote social and economic development in developing countries," said the panel's report, seen by Reuters. Other advice included having guidelines on how the fund should be spent in times of crises, such as pandemics and wars, and having new guidelines on how the fund should be used in the national budget. Currently up to 3% of the fund's value can be used in the budget without specifying what it should be spent on. The panel said it should be spent on "fundamental social structures" such as education, research and innovation, and not on "administrative expenses". The fund should also move faster to invest the 2% of its value earmarked for direct stakes in renewable projects abroad, like wind and solar farms. It has spent just 0.1% of its value on such investments. "The idea was that we were different people from different parts of the country. My experience is that we had all the same fundamental values," panellist Lill Synnoeve Ludvigsen, a 17-year-old high school student, told Reuters in a phone interview from her home in Trondheim, Norway's third-largest city. The fund divests from companies deemed in breach of its ethical guidelines adopted by parliament. On Sunday, it divested from Israel's Paz Retail and Energy for supplying fuel to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, as well as from Mexico's Pemex for what it called an unacceptable risk that it is involved in corruption.
