Norway’s sovereign wealth fund excludes 2 Malaysian firms

PETALING JAYA: Norway’s sovereign wealth fund manager Norges Bank Investment Management yesterday announced its decision to continue to exclude Malaysian conglomerates IJM Corp Bhd and Genting Bhd from the investment universe of its Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) for a second year.
The decision is due to an unacceptable risk that the companies are responsible for severe environmental damage in connection with the companies’ conversion of tropical forest into oil palm plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia.
Norges Bank Investment manages the GPFG on behalf of the Finance Ministry. The GPFG is the world’s top sovereign wealth fund, with assets of US$871 billion (RM3.57 trillion).
In documents published on its website, Norges Bank said, the decisions were made upon the advice of its Ethics Council, which in 2015, assessed whether such changes have occurred in the companies’ operations and conduct that the grounds for the exclusion recommendation no longer apply.
However in both cases the information gathered by the Ethics Council through the public domain, proved wanting.
IJM Corp shares were down 0.97% or 6 sen to RM6.12 yesterday, while Genting shares dropped 4.8% or 36 sen to RM7.14.
Norge Bank also announced the exclusion of South Korea’s POSCO and Daewoo International Corp from its investment universe.