For the first time in the past five years, the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund failed to meet the benchmark due to losses in the real estate market. With assets under management of USD 1.6 trillion, the fund earned USD 213 billion, equivalent to about 16.1 per cent – below its benchmark of 18 per cent. Created in the 1990s mainly to manage oil and gas revenues, ‘Norges bank investment management’ is the world’s largest owner of equities and its returns are highly dependent on market movements: the fund is more exposed in real estate holdings than in stocks and bonds, so losses in real estate caused the underperformance.
