Norway's $2 Trillion Wealth Fund Ends Contracts For Israel Asset Management

ARENDAL, Norway, Aug 11 (Reuters) – 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.