Norway’s $1.35 trillion sovereign wealth fund announced that it has sold all its remaining stake in companies belonging to Adani Group, as per a Reuters report. In relation to its annual report on responsible investments published on Thursday, the fund revealed that it has monitored Adani Group companies for many years regarding ESG compliance.
Christopher Wright, the fund's head of ESG risk monitoring, said at a news conference, “We have monitored Adani for many years (on ESG) issues, many on their handling of environmental risks. […] Since year-end, we have further reduced in Adani companies. We have no exposure left.”
After the Hindenburg report led to increased scrutiny of Adani Group companies, the sovereign wealth fund had announced on 31 January that the fund has been significantly cutting its exposure to the Gautam Adani-led conglomerate.
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Back then, Nicolai Tangen, chief executive officer of the wealth fund had told that the fund has sold some of its Adani Group stake. Regarding Hindenburg’s allegations against Adani Group, he had said, “It’s a complex situation. We have a separate department that is looking at risk-based divestments. […] We started to look at this a long time ago, and so we have taken a lot of exposure out.”
The present clarification from the fund indicates that it might have sold its remaining stake in Adani companies in the past 10 days.
The Norwegian fund held a $52.7 million stake in Adani Green Energy, a $83.6 million stake in Adani Total Gas and shares worth $63.4 million in Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone as of 2022-end.
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