Two of the nine listed companies in the portfolio of the Government Pension Fund of Norway are new investments made in 2021, namely the fast-moving consumer goods distributor Aquila – an investment of $3.6 million (RON16 million), i.e. a 1.4% stake, and the inland waterway freight carrier Transport Trade Services ($1 million or a 0.7% stake in the entrepreneurial company).
On the other hand, the Government Pension Fund of Norway, fueled by capital obtained by the country from North Sea oil and natural gas resources, exited auto parts manufacturer Compa Sibiu in 2021, where it held $700,000 at the end of 2020. This was the only exit from Bucharest, aggregate data from the report published on Wednesday show.
The Fund sold some of its stake in BRD, which went down from 1.1% to 0.8% in the bank at the end of 2021, in Digi (from 0.96% to 0.86%), in Petrom (from 0.3% to 0.24%) and in Electrica (from 0.67% to 0.4%).
The biggest share sale was in private healthcare provider MedLife where the Fund’s stake went from 2.8% to 1.2%.
In terms of purchases, the Fund bought into Banca Transilvania (from 0.56% to 0.8%) and bought Romanian government paper again for about $43 million. The Fund had sold Romania’s debt in 2020.
The Fund’s largest exposure in Romania is to Banca Transilvania, the leader of the country’s banking sector. At the end of 2021, the Fund had $29.5 million in the Cluj-based bank, compared to $18.2 million the previous year.
By comparison, at the end of 2020, the Fund’s largest exposure was to BRD, $28 million. At the end of 2021, the investment in BRD stood at $24 million.
The Fund returned 14.5% or NOK1,580 billion in 2021, its annual report says.
“Equity investments returned 20.8%, fixed-income investments -1.9%, and unlisted real estate investments 13.6%. (…) the investment in unlisted renewable energy infrastructure returned 4.2%,” Norges Investment Bank Management CEO Nicolai Tangen said.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)