Norway’s GPFG Reports Positive Returns in H1 2025

Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) returned 5.7% in the first half of 2025. The return on the fund’s equity investments was 6.7%, whereas it was 3.3% on fixed-income investments and the investments in unlisted real estate returned 4%.

The return on unlisted renewable energy infrastructure was 9.4%, the Norway’s Central Bank, Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which manages the country’s sovereign wealth fund said on Tuesday. The fund’s return was 0.05 percentage points lower than the return on the benchmark index. 

NBIM CEO Nicolai Tangen said that the results were driven by good returns in the stock market, particularly in the financial sector.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Tangen also said he has no plans to step down as CEO, while acknowledging the fund should have acted faster to take back management of those holdings.

The value of the fund fell by $15.24 billion in the first half of the year and the accounting return was $68.19 billion. The kroner (Norway’s currency) appreciated against several of the main currencies during the first half of the year and contributed to a fall in the value of the fund of $98.68 billion. In the first half of the year, inflows into the fund amounted to $15.24 billion after deduction of expenses. 

As of 30 June 2025, the fund had a value of around $1.913 trillion. Of this, 70.6% was invested in equities, 27.1% in fixed income, 1.9% in unlisted real estate and 0.4% in unlisted renewable energy infrastructure.

Mostly Overseas Investments

According to Bloomberg report, Norway’s wealth fund, the world’s largest, owns about 1.5% of listed stocks globally. More than two thirds of the fund are in equities, all outside of Norway. A large portion of its investments are in the US including tech companies such as Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp, Nvidia Corp, Alphabet Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Meta Platforms.

The report also said that financial firms returned 16.5% in the first six months of the year and accounted for 17% of the equity investments. The greatest contribution came from European banks, driven by expectations of increased public expenditure and further healthy profitability.

Other positive drivers included telecommunication companies and utilities, while health care performed the weakest, it said.

On equities, it tracks the FTSE Global All Cap index with holdings in about 8,700 listed companies in 44 countries, while the fixed-income portion of the fund follows Bloomberg Barclays indexes, with 70% allocated to government bonds and 30% to corporate securities, the report added.