Energy, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Funds, Investments, Markets and Companies

It appears from the annual report of the Norwegian Government Pension Fund that the fund had a position of 115.4 million kroner in Eesti Energia bonds in 2015. The same report says that in 2015 the fund's investment management unit approved adding six more countries to the list previously made up of 61 markets that the fund can invest its money in. The six countries are Bangladesh, Botswana, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Sri Lanka.

From the middle of February the list of shareholders of several listed Estonian companies includes an investor designated as Citibank (New York) / Government of Norway, it appears from the share registers. From May 2014, onwards Citibank has been managing the assets of the roughly 750-billion-euro Norwegian Government Pension Fund.

As on March 3 the biggest position of that investor was in Olympic Entertainment Group, in which it held 638,110 shares with a market value of 1.21 million euros. The Norwegian fund thus owns 0.42% of the Estonian casino group.

In shipper Tallink Grupp the same investor had shares worth 1.3 million euros, making up 0.19% of all shares. The market value of that position based on Wednesday's closing price was 1.16 million euros.

The Norwegian government had a position worth more than one million euros also in Tallinna Kaubamaja Grupp, where its holding of 150,000 shares, constituting 0.37% of all shares, is worth 1.08 million euros. The Norwegian government holds 235,630 shares or 0.62% of the shares in Silvano Fashion Group with a market value of 353,400 euros.

The Norwegian government has smaller positions in Merko Ehitus and Ekspress Grupp, where it holds 5,432 and 8,812 shares with market values of 45,400 euros and 11,300 euros, respectively.

The Norwegian Government Pension Fund is tasked with investing a part of the country's oil revenue. As at the end of the third quarter the fund's asset value was 746 billion euros, making it the biggest state-held investment fund in the world and one of the biggest investors in European stock markets.

Under authorization from the Norwegian Finance Ministry, the investments of the fund are guided by Norges Bank Investment Management, a sub-unit of the country's central bank. From 2014 the asset manager for the fund is the Citigroup subsidiary Citibank N.A., headquartered in New York.