Norway withdraws Adani: The world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, Norway’s $1.2 trillion fund, announced on Thursday that it had sold off its holdings in the struggling Indian firm Adani.
At the end of 2022, the fund, which was established to use the nation’s oil and gas income, had shares in the company valued at about $200 million.
Adani Green Energy, Adani Total Gas, and Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone all have 0.14 percent, 0.17 percent, and 0.3 percent stakes in the company, respectively.
According to Christopher Wright, the fund’s head of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risk monitoring, “since year-end, in the five weeks since year-end, we have further cut our exposure in Adani companies significantly.”
In other words, we have no exposure remaining as of right now, Wright continued.
The fund already sold its holdings in six Adani group businesses between 2014 and 2023, mostly due to their significant greenhouse gas emissions and role in deforestation.
In a study published in January, the US short-selling investment firm Hindenburg Research accused the Gautam Adani corporate empire of artificially inflating share prices, causing it to lose about $120 billion in value.
It recovered some of it this week after promising to pay back early loans totaling $1.1 billion in an effort to reassure investors.
Hindenburg charged Adani of inflating the share prices of its units artificially through the use of offshore tax havens to invest in the equities.
Adani has always refuted the charges and charged the US investment group with a “maliciously mischievous” attack on its reputation.
“Norwegian Fund Withdraws Investments in 87 Firms Over Harmful ESG Practices”
The Norwegian fund withdrew from a record 74 firms last year after determining that their ESG practices were harmful to their profitability and from 13 more following advice from an ethical council.
However, “Ethical guidelines supervise the fund and forbid it from investing in firms that violate significant human rights, produce nuclear weapons, engage in coal and tobacco, and hold stakes in around 9,000 companies, bonds, and real estate.”