Government Pension Fund-Global, Oslo, is considering shifting as much as 351 billion Norwegian kroner ($53 billion) into overseas equities from its current fixed-income portfolio, according to the 2007 national budget released today.
"The Ministry of Finance has received recommendations from Norges Bank and the Ministry's Advisory Council on an investment strategy to increase the equity portion of the portfolio to 50% or 60%" of total assets, according to the budget statement. The current asset allocation for the 1.76 trillion Norwegian kroner fund is 40% equities and 60% fixed income, all of which is invested overseas to avoid destabilizing the domestic stock market.
Cash flow from petroleum activities in 2007 is expected to total 365 billion kroner, of which about 308 billion kroner is slated for the fund, according to the budget. The market value of the fund is estimated to increase to about 2.18 trillion kroner by the end of 2007.
No information was available on when the allocation change might be made.
