Internal active equity management has enabled the fund to develop investment strategies tailored to its characteristics. This book is an historic review of the fund’s more than 20 years’ experience in this area. Company insight is critical in fulfilling our role as a large and long-term owner of companies. The company insight strategies have been based on knowing companies in depth. We have unsurpassed access to company management and conduct more than 3,000 company meetings every year
Chief Executive Officer Nicolai Tangen introduces former CEO Yngve Slyngstad and several people from the fund who talk about the fund's 20 years' experience in this area. The participants are: Petter Johnsen, Chief Equities Officer, Sigmund Kyrdalen, Global Head of Special Mandates and Finn Hvistendahl, Senior Portfolio Manager.
This book review looks at our approach to engaging with companies to gain the investment insight needed to safeguard our assets for the long term. Equity investments are the largest part of the fund and contain most of the risk to our future returns. We need to know what we are invested in and engaging with companies and knowing their business strengthens this assessment. The review also tells the story about how we developed our internal active management after having launched it when we opened our London office in August 2000, and how the team gradually expanded to New York, Shanghai and Singapore. These investment strategies have made a strong, positive contribution to the fund’s relative return. In the first 21 years, the excess return has been 1.1 percent on average per year or a total of 87 billion kroner. This is the sixth book in a series of historic reviews about how the fund got to where it is.