Norway wealth fund excludes India's ONGC, 3 Israeli firms from portfolio
03/09/2021 09:40
OSLO, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Norway's $1.4 trillion wealth fund
has excluded India's top oil producer Oil and Natural Gas Corp
ONGC.NS from its portfolio due to concerns over the company's
business in South Sudan, the fund said in a statement.
The world's largest sovereign fund also excluded three
Israeli firms, Elco ELCO.TA , its subsidiary Electra ELTR.TA
and Ashtrom ASHG.TA because of their links to Israeli
settlements in the West Bank.
The companies were not immediately available for comment.
Exclusions are based on advice from the fund's ethics
watchdog and holdings are sold before any announcement is made.
For ONGC, the primary concern was over its participation in
two joint ventures in oil-dependent South Sudan, the watchdog
said, a country where violent clashes between rival factions
continue even after the end of a civil war in 2018. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2PI0NR
"The council considers that ONGC through its operations has
accepted a risk of contributing to serious abuse committed to
enable oil production in the country," said the watchdog,
formally known as the Council on Ethics.
"The council also takes into consideration that actors who
are directly or indirectly responsible for grave violations are
providing services to the joint ventures and are responsible for
the security at the oil fields that the joint ventures operate."
In Israel, industrial group Elco and its construction
subsidiary Electra were excluded because Electra builds roads in
the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, with Electra recently
winning a tender for the construction of a major road project.
Along with a number of other countries, Norway considers the
settlements a breach of international law, a view that Israel
disputes. A 2020 United Nations report said it had found 112
companies with operations linked to the region, home to around
650,000 Israelis.
Meanwhile, Ashtrom lets industrial premises in the
settlements which the council says "contributes to the
continuation of an illegal state that their construction once
initiated".
The fund held a 0.38% stake in ONGC at the end of 2020, its
latest disclosure, valued at $60.6 million. It held a 0.1% stake
worth $1.35 million in Elco, a 0.38% stake worth $7.8 million in
Electra and a 0.04% stake worth $749,000 in Ashtrom.
Set up in 1996 to preserve Norway's oil revenues for future
generations, the fund holds around 1.4% of globally listed
shares and its decisions are often followed by other investors.
(Reporting by Terje Solsvik and Gwladys Fouche in Oslo, Ari
Rabinovitch in Jerusalem and Sudarshan Varadhan in Chennai;
editing by David Evans)
((terje.solsvik@thomsonreuters.com; +47 918 666 70))