The Government Pension Fund Global, the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world, reported a value of 17.7 trillion kroner at the end of March. This was revealed during a press conference held at Norges Bank in Oslo, Norway. Despite strong returns on investments in technology stocks, weak results from real estate investments led to an overall negative result for the fund.
The deputy CEO of the fund, Trond Grande, highlighted the exceptional performance of their equity investments in the tech sector during the first quarter. The fund’s return on equity investments was 9.1%, while yields on fixed income investments were -0.4% and -0.5% on unlisted real estate investments. However, the return on unlisted renewable energy infrastructure was -11.4%. Despite these setbacks, the fund’s overall return was only slightly lower than the benchmark index.
Established in the 1990s to invest the surplus revenues of Norway’s oil and gas sector, the sovereign wealth fund has invested in over 8,800 companies in more than 70 countries worldwide. As one of the world’s largest investors, it continues to play a significant role in global economics and will be closely watched for future updates.