The Norway sovereign wealth fund, officially known as the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), is one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds with over $1 trillion in assets. It is owned by the Norwegian government and invests the country’s surplus oil revenues across global stocks, bonds, and real estate. While individual investors cannot directly invest in the GPFG itself, there are some ways they can gain exposure to the fund and the asset classes it invests in:
Invest in Norwegian stocks and bonds
The GPFG allocates over 60% of its portfolio to global stocks, with a particular emphasis on equity markets in Europe and Scandinavia. Individual investors can mimic parts of the fund’s strategy by investing in Norwegian companies or Norway-focused ETFs and mutual funds. Some leading Norwegian public companies include Equinor, Telenor, Yara International, and DNB. Alternatively, gain broad exposure through funds tracking Norwegian stock indexes.
Invest in international real estate
The Norway sovereign wealth fund owns significant stakes in global real estate, including luxury properties, shopping malls, office buildings, hotels, infrastructure, and timberlands. While individual investors likely cannot access the same assets, they can invest in publicly traded REITs that provide liquid real estate exposure across various property sectors and regions.
Utilize natural resource funds and ETFs
A major source of capital for the Norway fund comes from the country’s petroleum industry. Individuals can similarly benefit from the energy and materials sectors through ETFs and mutual funds focusing on natural resources, commodities, energy infrastructure, and related equities.
Employ index funds and ETFs
As a broadly diversified investor across global assets, the GPFG’s performance tends to track that of overall international stock and bond markets. Individual investors can efficiently achieve wide diversification at low cost by utilizing index mutual funds and ETFs benchmarked to leading global equity and fixed income indexes.
While individual investors cannot invest directly in Norway’s sovereign wealth fund itself, they can gain similar exposure to the asset classes it targets by utilizing publicly traded stocks, funds, REITs, and ETFs focusing on Norwegian and international equities, real estate, natural resources, commodities, and benchmark global bond indexes.