Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Norway's wealth fund is US$1,000,000,000,000

Note: I Trillion is 1,000 Billions (or I Million times I Million).


Star Online - Norway’s wealth fund hits record US$1 trillion (extracts):


OSLO: The value of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, hit US$1 trillion (RM4.2 trillion) for the first time on Tuesday as booming global stock markets and a rising euro lifted its assets.

Established in 1998 to save oil and gas revenues for future generations, the wealth fund is now worth about 2.5 times Norway’s annual gross domestic product, against original projections it would peak at 1.3 times of GDP in the 2020s.


At 1034 GMT, a live update on the fund’s website showed its value at 7.851 trillion Norwegian crowns (US$1.00 trillion).

Run by a unit of the central bank, the fund invests all its money in foreign stocks, bonds and real estate, with holdings spread among 77 countries.

Almost two-thirds of assets were held in equities at the end of the second quarter, with stakes in about 9,000 companies, giving it control over 1.3% of all globally listed stocks.

By contrast, Norway’s population of 5.3 million people corresponds to less than 0.1% of the world’s population.


In 2017 Norway is ranked No: 21 on the US Energy Information Administration (US EIA) with a reserve of 6,611 MMbbi (millions of barrels).

Wikipedia tells us that The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System responsible for collecting, analyzing, and disseminating energy information to promote sound policymaking, efficient markets, and public understanding of energy and its interaction with the economy and the environment. EIA programs cover data on coal, petroleum, natural gas, electric, renewable and nuclear energy. EIA is part of the U.S. Department of Energy.

In the same ranking scale, US EIA (there are many besides US EIA, such as OPEC, BP etc), Malaysia is ranked No: 27 with a reserve of 3,600 MMbbi (millions of barrels), about half of what Norway has.

However, the World Oil and Gas Review has been far more generous to Malaysia, saying that in 2015 we have a reserve of 5,542 MMbbi (millions of barrels), just 1 thousand MMbbi less than Norway.

Ignoring the far more generous statistics, compared to Norway which has twice what we have, I wonder whether where Malaysia would have stood vis-a-vis a wise sovereign wealth fund if Malaysia had set up?







ETC ETC ETC 

The Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund has been run by a unit of the central bank, where the fund invests all its money in foreign stocks, bonds and real estate, with holdings spread among 77 countries.

Our Bank Negara funds seem to be run or gambled by a one-man specialist.


8 comments:

  1. bnm no proper signature so remain mystery. 1mdb got signature oso remain mystery. the blogger that attack the former but not latter is no mystery, sure a dedak eater.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Norway was already a fairly advanced OECD economy when oil was discovered in North Sea waters in the late 1960s.

    Norway never faced having to spend huge amounts to bootstrap up a 3rd World economy, so a wise decision was to place the oil surplus into a wealth creation fund , which has accumulated vast sums after 40 years of oil and gas.

    In Malaysia, we have Wealth Destruction Funds.
    1MDB's total long term liabilities are RM 38 Billion.
    Most of those liabilities were from loans taken out. Where the cash accrued from the loans went God only knows.
    Most of it is in "Units" worth ???.

    Compare that to Norway's gilt-edged asses.

    Its "Assets" were given at FireSale prices by the Government. Essentially given free , stolen from future generations. There is an Idiotic Blogger here who thinks that is A-OK, not bad

    1MDB is not a 30-year old story. It is happening - TODAY. We CANNOT, MUST Not close our eyes to the scandal.


    Malaysia had spent a huge amount of its oil wealth on infrastructure in 1980's and 1990's.
    You have to have lived in a rural area to realise just how much the country has improved from 1980 to now. Roads, rural electrification - my parent's home had no 24 hour electricity supply in the 1970's, schools - I travelled 20 Kilometers daily during my secondary school days in the 1970's, water supply - I had no pipe water in my home for the first 10 years of my life.

    I hate the Racism, the Corruption, the Kleptocracy in the country, including in the 1970s , 1980's, 1990's , 2000s, 2010s, but don't throw out the baby with the bathwater.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. stop bullshitting to save your idol's reputation.

      I quote: Established in 1998 to save oil and gas revenues for future generations, the wealth fund is now worth about 2.5 times Norway’s annual gross domestic product, against original projections it would peak at 1.3 times of GDP in the 2020s.

      T'was just 20 years (from 1998) not bloody 40 years.

      In fact it was Malaysia which started its oil industry in 1974, more than 40 years ago. If Malaysia had put aside a decent fraction of the wanton profligacy going on since 1981, it would have a fairly substantial amount of sovereign wealth funds, maybe by extrapolating from Norwegian funds, and with the correct investment team as per the Norwegians (not a dictator), about around 500 Billion US$ or 2 Trillion ringgit.

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    2. You obviously don't know the subject you are talking about - just pure hatred for 1 person.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Pension_Fund_of_Norway

      The Norwegian Sovereign fund in its current form since 1998 for better management - but it was founded by transferring assets from a previous fund founded in 1967. Oil was discovered in Norwegian waters in 1967.

      "The Government Pension Fund – Norway (Norwegian: Statens pensjonsfond Norge, SPN) was established by the National Insurance Act (Folketrygdloven) in 1967 under the name National Insurance Scheme Fund (Norwegian: Folketrygdfondet).

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    3. For your information, the largest Norwegian oil field was discovered in Norwegian waters in 1967.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekofisk_oil_field

      This I know well, as I have met a person who spent some time working on that rig before.

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    4. be that as it was, the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund started ONLY in 1998. Maybe like Malaysia, initially it used the oil wealth on other projects though I am certain not on stuff like Petronas Tower, bailing out this and that profligate projects and nonsense, even on a personal basis, and recklessly wasting our national wealth

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    5. and whatever the history of the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Funds, at least the Norwegians have something to show for its careful prudent investments unlike a certain wastrel in Malaysia who brought our nation severe criticism like what Barry Wain wrote in his book

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    6. U want something prudent for a show?

      How about PNB!

      Setup by Tengku Razaleigh in 1978, using Rakyat's (mostly Non's) money (initial government cash injection + government owned private company shares + enforced acquired 30% Non's company equity at cheap discount) as a seed fund. It actually bloomed during the reign of mamak.

      PNB has total assets under management of about RM259.49bil currently (Nov2016).

      PNB was expecting a gross income of RM18.64bil and a net income of RM15.18bil with a return on assets of about 6.1%.

      PNB has been able to deliver consistent returns to its unitholders, with over RM136bil having been paid out since its inception 38 years ago.

      PNB is currently the market leader in the local unit trust industry, managing RM220bil in unit trust assets with 12.8 million accounts, representing over a 60% market share in terms of total fund value.

      PNB is a major investor in Bursa Malaysia with investments of nearly RM170bil or 10% of the market capitalisation of the bourse.

      At the moment, out of PNB’s investment portfolio, the cash position is about 20% (RM50bil in terms of absolute amount) and fixed income is 4%.

      The two sour points about PNB r

      1) WHEN it will ever return the seed money to the country!

      2) How to be more equitable in the unit trust fund holding distribution towards the B40 Melayu

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