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Norway's $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund said on Monday it is terminating contracts with asset managers handling its Israeli investments and has divested parts of its portfolio in the country over the situation in Gaza and the West Bank.
The announcement follows an urgent review launched last week following media reports that the fund had built a stake in an Israeli jet engine group that provides services to Israel's armed forces, including the maintenance of fighter jets.
"All investments in Israeli companies that have been managed by external managers will be moved in-house and managed internally," the fund said.
The fund, an arm of Norway's central bank, which held stakes in 61 Israeli companies as of June 30, in recent days divested stakes in 11 of these, it said in a statement, without naming the groups.
The fund is now taking a closer look at the remaining 50 Israeli companies in the portfolio and will report back to the finance ministry by an August 20 deadline.
"There is good reason to believe that there will be further sell-outs," Deputy CEO Trond Grande told Reuters, without saying how many companies could be affected.
The review will also lead to improved due diligence, it added.
"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," it said.
The fund, which owns stakes in 8,700 companies worldwide, held shares in 65 Israeli companies at the end of 2024, valued at $1.95 billion, its records show.
In the last year it sold its stakes in an Israeli energy company and a telecoms group over ethics concerns, and its ethics watchdog has said it is reviewing whether to divest holdings in five banks.
Norway's parliament in June rejected a proposal for the fund to divest from all companies with activities in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The world’s biggest dance music festival faces an unexpected setback as a fire destroys its main stage, prompting a last-minute response from organisers determined to keep the party alive in Boom, Belgium.
A powerful eruption at Japan’s Shinmoedake volcano sent an ash plume more than 3,000 metres high on Sunday morning, prompting safety warnings from authorities.
According to the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), a magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck the Oaxaca region of Mexico on Saturday.
A resumption of Iraq’s Kurdish oil exports is not expected in the near term, sources familiar with the matter said on Friday, despite an announcement by Iraq’s federal government a day earlier stating that shipments would resume immediately.
'Superman' continued to dominate the summer box office, pulling in another $57.25 million in its second weekend, as theatres welcome a wave of blockbuster competition following a challenging few years for the film industry.
The Syrian Civil Aviation Authority has signed a $4 billion agreement with an international consortium last week (6 August), including companies from Türkiye, Qatar and the United States, aiming to expand Damascus International Airport.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has announced a lending the equivalent of $ 7 million to Saloğlu, Azerbaijan’s leading furniture producer and retailer, in local currency to help boost its competitiveness.
Paramount will become the exclusive U.S. broadcaster of the Ultimate Fighting Championship from 2026 under a seven-year agreement with TKO Group Holdings worth about $7.7 billion, the companies said on Monday.
South Korea and Vietnam have pledged to boost annual trade to $150 billion by 2030, signing 10 cooperation deals as new U.S. tariffs disrupt global supply chains.
On Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump urged China to greatly boost soybean imports from the U.S. to help reduce its trade deficit. However, experts say a sharp increase is unlikely due to ongoing trade tensions and China’s changing buying habits.
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