The Ministry of Finance has asked Folketrygdfondet to look at potential ways of organising a new asset management unit in Tromsø, with Folketrygdfondet as asset manager. The initiative was first announced in the white paper on the Government Pension Fund Norway in 2022.
‘We see this as a vote of confidence in Folketrygdfondet’s track record as an asset manager, and we will submit a satisfactory proposal to the Ministry by the deadline on 15 September 2023,’ says CEO of Folketrygdfondet Kjetil Houg.
Folketrygdfondet was represented on a working group that, in autumn 2022, recommended making unlisted companies the investment universe for the new unit in Tromsø, and that the unit should be organised under the Ministry of Trade and Fisheries.
An alternative considered by the working group was to organise the unit under Folketrygdfondet, in which case its investment universe should be adapted to suit Folketrygdfondets’s field of expertise, i.e. listed companies. The Ministry is now asking for an assessment of a model with Folketrygdfondet as manager. Folketrygdfondet has also been asked to assess which parts of listed and unlisted markets could potentially be included.
‘It will be interesting to see what we can come up with that will create added value for the public good. An important underlying principle is that the unit’s activities should not overlap with existing sovereign investment activities,’ says Kjetil Houg.