Links 🔗

- ‘There will be shocks’: Yngve Slyngstad, Norway’s $1tn man

- Why The UK Lost Its Oil Wealth (And Why Norway Didn't)

I was scrolling through Twitter and saw this tweet by Jalil Rasheed and it caught my eye. Although I knew that the Norwegian's sovereign wealth fund is biggest in the world, that pretty much sums up my knowledge of it. 

This conversation article between Yngve Slyngstad and the Financial Times talks about Slyngstad's time in the fund and his philosophical approach to investing. After reading the article, I did a bit of research about the Norways's oil fund which is shown below.

Norway's Sovereign Wealth Fund

• Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global is the world's largest sovereign wealth fund with a market cap of $1.1tn.
• The fund belongs to every Norwegian citizen, making them worth $200,000 on paper.
• In the 1960s, Norway struck oil. This made Norway very rich.
• Being aware of the dutch disease, Norway's government wanted a sustainable way to preserve the oil wealth for future generation. The solution was the sovereign wealth fund where all of the oil revenue is poured into it.
• The fund has shares in 9000 international company, including in 146 listed companies in Malaysia. Among them, 0.42% in AirAsia Group and 0.89% in Bursa Malaysia.

What's interesting about the article?

• When asked about what his job entails, Slyngstad puts that he aims for “index-like” investing “with low costs and without big mistakes leading to debate”
• Slyngstad employed a more philosophical approach to investing than the conventional trading.
• It's interesting to see that the man behind the behemoth is a man of integrity that promotes transparency and responsibility, taking into account environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria.
• It's a good read to understand the thinking behind a successful fund manager and how the Norwegians got to where they are today.
• It reminds you of a particular sovereign fund that we, Malaysian used to have and makes you wonder what if the fund was managed by someone as competent as Slyngstad.

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