Norway holds Swiss investments worth over CHF35 billion

Norway's sovereign wealth funds originate from the proceeds of the country's gas and oil sales. KEYSTONE

According to Norges Bank CEO Nicolai Tangen, the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund holds investments in Switzerland worth CHF 35.5 billion ($39 billion). UBS is its largest investment: Norges has a stake of less than 5%.

Norges Bank, Norway’s central bank, also had a stake in Credit Suisse (CS), which was taken over by UBS.

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“We reduced our stake shortly before the takeover by UBS, but we are not giving any concrete figures on our losses,” said Tangen in an interview with the SonntagsZeitung newspaper. “One thing I can say is that we didn’t have any AT1 bonds, so we didn’t lose any money on CS bonds.”

But, he added, “we clearly made a mistake with our investment.”

In general, however, Tangen is satisfied with the Swiss investments: “We love our Swiss investments,” he said. Switzerland has excellent companies, outstanding management and fantastic international companies, he added.

According to Tangen, Norges manages a total of $1.6 trillion. “Inflows in the first quarter of 2024 totalled NOK100 billion (CHF8.4 billion), which is the average for all quarters last year,” he said. The funds originate from the proceeds of gas and oil sales by the Norwegian state.

Translated from German by DeepL/gw

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