Access to invest in unlisted companies seeking a listing

In its letter of 27 March 2019, the Ministry asked Norges Bank to report on its experience of investing in unlisted companies where the board has expressed an intention to seek a listing and consider whether the current provision needs to be amended. The Bank has published its response today in a letter.

As presupposed by the Ministry in 2011, access to invest in companies before they are listed enables the Bank to exploit the fund’s special characteristics and helps ensure efficient execution of the fund’s management. The Bank is of the opinion that the wording of the current provision that the board must have expressed “an intention” to seek a listing should be amended. One alternative to the current mandate provision is to allow the fund to be invested in unlisted shares in large companies that are not yet listed. If the wording of the mandate is altered in line with the Bank’s proposal, the Ministry should set a limit for the weight of unlisted shares in companies that are not yet listed. 

For discussion in the Ministry of Finance 

Norges Bank’s letters on the investment strategy of the Government Pension Fund Global to the Ministry of Finance are advice and assessments, not decisions. The advice and the assessments have been sent to the Ministry of Finance for further discussion.  

Read Norges Bank’s letters to the Ministry of Finance here.  

Press contacts:

Thomas Sevang, Head of Communications and External Relations
Tel: +47 926 01 756 / +47 24 07 32 76

Marthe Skaar, Manager Communications and External Relations
Tel: +47 926 17 663 / +47 24 07 35 61

E-mail: press@nbim.no

Read the letter