OSLO (Reuters). – Norway’s sovereign wealth fund of $1.4 trillion, which is the largest in the world, conducted a risk-based screening on 442 companies. It concluded that nine out of these firms were not suitable for investment.

“Our long-standing effort with risk-based diverstments is strengthened and enriched by pre-screening. It is about weeding companies out of which we don’t want to invest,” stated Nicolai Tangen (CEO, Norges Bank Investment Management).

It said that it wouldn’t name any affected companies.

This Norwegian fund has invested in approximately 9,100 companies around the world. The fund uses the Global All Cap index of FTSE Russell for its reference index.

The fund is able to screen companies that it doesn’t want in its portfolio based upon environmental, governance, and governance risks as new stocks become part of the FTSE Index.

The fund stated that it had identified 65 additional companies with high sustainability risks during the second half year. These will be followed up by our investment process and our ownership work. (Graphic: Market value of Norway’s wealth fund, https://graphics.reuters.com/NORWAY-SWF/qzjvqajwgvx/chart.png)