Published : 3 days ago, on 06/12/2024

By Gwladys Fouche

OSLO (Reuters) -Norway’s $1.8 trillion sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, can start selling stocks it holds in Russian companies, as long as it complies with international sanctions, the deputy finance minister told Reuters on Friday.

“Permission to sell the fund’s Russian stocks is given on the condition that the sale can be done in line with applicable sanctions,” Ellen Reitan said in an email.

The Norwegian finance ministry ordered a halt to all transactions in the fund’s Russian assets shortly after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and said at the time that the ultimate goal was to divest its holdings.

The fund has so far been unable from offloading Russian assets because it is not permitted to sell to counterparties under U.S. or EU sanctions.

On Wednesday, the central bank, which manages the fund, asked the Norwegian finance ministry for permission to sell parts of its Russian portfolio when possible, saying “isolated transactions if and when divestment opportunities arise is currently the only way” to sell off parts of the portfolio.

Wednesday’s letter did not say if the fund had found buyers it could sell to.

Norway’s fund, which holds the windfall generated by its oil and gas production, owns 1.5% of all global listed shares in companies.

Moscow considers U.S. and EU sanctions a form of economic warfare, and says calls to divest Russian assets are hostile acts of unfriendly states.

Philip Gabunia, deputy governor of Russia’s central bank, told Reuters on Wednesday any decision to sell the assets inside Russia would require Moscow’s permission, granted only with “compelling grounds.

“If they want to sell in Russia, they must submit a request to our Russian governmental commission. Only after that will the matter be considered. Outside of Russia, they can sell to another foreigner, but it will also remain frozen,” Gabunia said.

Asked about Gabunia’s comment, the Norwegian deputy finance minister did not address the question in her emailed reply.

The value of the fund’s Russian equity portfolio was estimated at just 1.5 billion crowns ($135 million) at the end of June this year, the central bank has said.

The investments are across 49 Russian companies, fund data showed, with the biggest holdings in Sberbank, Lukoil and Gazprom, fund data showed.

That includes stocks of Russian companies listed outside Russia, or which have a secondary listing outside Russia, which would not require approval from Moscow.

Among them are Novatek, Yandex, Evraz, Globaltrans Investments and Ozon Holdings, fund data showed.

In addition, the fund holds Russian roubles worth some 3.2 billion crowns in its custodian Citibank account with the Russian National Settlement Depository (NSD), consisting of dividends received in the period since Feb. 2022, it added.

(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche in Oslo, editing by Terje Solsvik and Kim Coghill)