The executive board of the world's largest sovereign wealth fund put one company under observation and readmitted three firms to its investment universe.
South Korea-based Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co. was placed under observation due to unacceptable risk that it contributes to, or is responsible for, gross corruption. Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global's council on ethics — which evaluates the ethical credentials of companies within the fund's investment universe — made the recommendation April 28. Norges Bank, which is responsible for the management of the Oslo-based fund, put the company under observation for four years. The council will monitor the company's development, a document said.
Three companies that had been excluded were readmitted to the investment universe. Precious Shipping Public Co., based in Thailand, was excluded in 2018 due to unacceptable risk that it contributed to gross violations of human rights and severe environmental damage through its disposing of decommissioned vessels. The company was sending the vessels to be broken up for scrap on Bangladesh and Pakistan beaches, the document said.
However, the company has not disposed of vessels in this way since 2016, hence its readmission.
Further, the exclusions of U.S.-based Empire District Electric Co. and London-headquartered mining company Anglo American PLC were also revoked, following work on the sovereign wealth fund's product-based coal criterion.
Finally, the observation of four companies was halted, also on the basis of Norges Bank's work on its product-based coal criterion. The companies are Energias de Portugal, Spain-based utility firm Endesa SA, U.S.-based Portland General Electric Co., and Italian electricity and gas firm Enel SpA.
GPFG had 11.03 trillion Norwegian kroner ($1.29 trillion) in assets as of March 31.
