Norway sovereign wealth fund to increase A-share exposure

By Bloomberg (China Daily) Updated: 2014-11-05 07:33

Slyngstad said the fund is now "less invested in" credit markets after excess liquidity distorted prices. He is adjusting the portfolio even after corporate bonds were the fund's best-performing asset class in the third quarter.

"It seems like spreads are coming in but it's a secondary effect of monetary policy that from our reading has increased the need for pondering," he said.

Slyngstad is also watching how the Ebola crisis will unfold. "In general, the possibility of a pandemic is underestimated in the market," he said.

After working as head of equities, Slyngstad became CEO of the fund at the beginning of 2008 and said his tenure has coincided with a "fascinating period" in financial markets.

The financial crisis - during which the fund has bought up cheap securities everyone else was selling - has challenged truths about investment management, monetary policy, the economy and the financial markets, he said.

It has showed that the financial industry has the capacity to heal itself, with or without the help of regulators, according to Slyngstad.

The power of the crisis could be called "Schumpeterian creative destruction", said Slyngstad, who has studied German philosophy.

"Crisis within the financial sector also serves a purpose," he said. "You have to be careful about something that without a crisis looks stable, but may also turn stagnant."

The fund, which has been struggling to meet a 4 percent real-return target set by the government amid plunging interest rates, wants to broaden its investment universe to include infrastructure and private equity.

While the infrastructure market currently is not big enough at the global level and presents too much regulatory risk, the fund is preparing for the day the government gives it the green light.

The Norwegian government has said it will first judge the fund's performance in real estate, where it is now boosting its investments toward 5 percent from 1.3 percent.

A discussion on broadening the asset mix of the fund is coming "no matter" what, and a tipping point could be when it has reached 4 percent in real estate, Slyngstad said. The fund has so far snapped up properties on Times Square in New York, the Avenue des Champs-Elysees in Paris, London' Regent Street as well as San Francisco, Washington and Zurich among other cities.

"That will be a natural touch point," he said. "Both for the real estate question, and for the real assets question."