Simplifying the management of our investments in Israel

The Ministry of Finance has requested Norges Bank to review its implementation of the management mandate of the fund, its investments in Israeli companies, and to propose new measures that it deems necessary. We have initiated the review and are in close dialogue with the Council on Ethics and have meetings with the Ministry of Finance. We will formally respond to the Ministry’s letter as soon as possible and before the deadline on 20 August.  

At the end of the first half of the year, the fund was invested in 61 Israeli companies. Of these, 11 companies were not in the equity benchmark index of the Ministry. 

Early last week, Norges Bank Investment Management made the following decisions:  

• All investments in Israeli companies that are not in the equity benchmark index will be sold as soon as possible. 
• All investments in Israeli companies that have been managed by external managers will be moved inhouse and managed internally. We are terminating contracts with external managers in Israel.  

As a result, the fund’s investments in Israel will now be limited to companies that are in the equity benchmark index. However, we will not be invested in all Israeli companies in the index.  

We have spent the recent days selling all our investments in Israeli companies that are not in the equity benchmark index. We have now completely sold out of these positions.  

“These measures were taken in response to extraordinary circumstances. The situation in Gaza is a serious humanitarian crisis. We are invested in companies that operate in a country at war, and conditions in the West Bank and Gaza have recently worsened. In response, we will further strengthen our due diligence. The measures we are taking will simplify the management of our investments in this market and reduce the number of companies that we and the Council on Ethics monitor,” says Nicolai Tangen, CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management.  

We have long paid particular attention to companies associated with war and conflict. We constantly monitor companies’ risk management related to conflict zones and respect for human rights. In 2022, and again in 2024, we strengthened our expectations toward companies operating in war and conflict zones. Since 2020, we have been in contact with more than 60 companies to raise this issue. Of these, 39 dialogues were related to the West Bank and Gaza. In the autumn of 2024, we further intensified the monitoring of our investments in Israeli companies. As a result, we have sold our investments in several Israeli companies.  

We have also expanded our information-sharing with the Council on Ethics on Israeli companies, in line with the ethical guidelines. To date, based on recommendations from the Council on Ethics, 11 companies have been excluded from the fund due to unacceptable risk of contribution to serious norm violations associated with business operations in the West Bank.  

Norges Bank Investment Management will hold a press conference on August 12 at 08:00 CET to announce the fund's half-year results and provide more information about its Israeli investments. We refer all questions about this press release to the press conference. The press conference will be held in Norwegian.