NORWAY’S SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUND EXCLUDES ADANI PORTS OVER HUMAN RIGHTS RISKS IN WAR ZONES

Thu 16 May 2024:

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund has decided to exclude Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Ltd from its portfolio due to “unacceptable” risks linked to human rights violations in war and conflict zones, Bloomberg reported.

The decision, announced by Norges Bank Investment Management, follows recommendations from Norway’s Council on Ethics, the report said.

The fund is also excluding US-based L3Harris Technologies Inc. and China’s Weichai Power Co. over concerns related to their involvement in military equipment sales to Russia and aBelarus.

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund is valued at $1.7 trillion. It is the world’s largest single sovereign wealth fund in terms of total assets under management.

“NBIM has had billionaire Gautam Adani’s logistics and transportation firm ‘under observation’ since 2022, originally due to its involvement in a port terminal in Myanmar. The company sold that port project last year. In a separate statement, Norway’s Council on Ethics noted that ‘no information on the buyer is available,’ making it impossible to ascertain whether Adani still has ties to the division,” said the report.

“In a situation in which extremely serious norm violations are taking place, this constitutes an unacceptable risk,” Bloomberg reported the Council on Ethics as saying.

ESG investors have historically avoided aerospace and defence firms, along with their suppliers. However, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent surge in stock prices have prompted some portfolio managers to reassess the sector. By late last year, over 1,000 ESG funds had invested in these stocks, marking a roughly 25% increase since the invasion. Nonetheless, the majority of ESG fund managers still steer clear of these investments.

-The Wire

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