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The
fund, built from Norway's oil and gas revenues and one of the
biggest investors in Britain, said 8.5 percent of its portfolio
was in British equities, bonds and real estate at the end of
2018.
"We will continue to be significant" investors in Britain, the
fund's CEO Yngve Slyngstad told Reuters after the fund reported
a loss in market value for 2018. "And we foresee that over time
that our investments in the UK will increase."
"With our time horizon, which is 30 years plus, current
political discussions do not change our view of the situation,"
he said when asked about the risks caused by Britain's plans to
quit the EU on March 29.
Even so, Britain's share of the fund's portfolio slipped below
Japan's to third from its usual spot in second behind the United
States. Slyngstad said the dip was caused by a strengthening of
the yen against the pound.
GRAPHIC: Largest SWFs: - http://tmsnrt.rs/2tskfub
And he said Britain was included in a broad-based global
equities buying spree worth about $30 billion from November to
January when the fund reckoned it was buying shares on the cheap
amid turmoil on markets.
The fund is one of the biggest foreign investors in Britain, as
a co-owner of London's Regent Street, as a top five owner in
firms such as HSBC and BP among others, and as a holder of
roughly 6 billion pounds of UK government debt.
Slyngstad also reaffirmed commitment to Britain even in the case
of a 'no-deal' Brexit. Norway is not a member of the EU,
although it is bound by many of its rules.
"We see no operational consequences of any possible outcomes,"
he said. He said that the fund had almost 250 staff in London
and would stay at that level regardless of the outcome of the
Brexit talks.
Worldwide, the fund owns about 1.4 percent of all equities.
Falls in stock markets meant that the fund, equivalent to
$193,000 for every Norwegian man, woman and child, had a
negative return on investment of 6.1 percent in 2018, down from
a positive 13.7 percent in 2017.
And it lagged its benchmark index by 0.3 percentage point.
"This is the first time that the fund has had a considerable
decline in value," Slyngstad told a news conference. "The only
other time was a slight decline in 2002."
The fund's value slipped to 8.26 billion crowns at the end of
2018 from 8.49 billion in 2017. But Slyngstad said that market
gains so far in 2019 had wiped out last year's losses.
At the end of 2018, the fund's biggest equity holdings were in
Microsoft (64.7 billion crowns), Apple (62.7 billion), Alphabet
(57.6 billion), Amazon (54.8 billion), Nestle (53.9 billion) and
Royal Dutch Shell (51.3 billion).
($1 = 8.5455 Norwegian crowns)
(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche and Alister Doyle; Editing by Terje
Solsvik, Larry King and Hugh Lawson)
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