NBIM, Norway’s US$1.42 trillion sovereign fund, is winding up Shanghai office, shifting regional base to Singapore
- NBIM had a total of US$42 billion invested in about 850 Chinese companies at the end of 2022
- Move is ‘only an adjustment of our operating business model’, fund says
Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), the manager overseeing Norway’s US$1.42 trillion oil fund, is closing its representative office in Shanghai and is making its Singapore office its regional hub in Asia.
“Our Singapore office has increasingly served as the hub for the whole of the Asian region and has been built up to take care of all operational functions, including for China,” it said.
NBIM had a total of US$42 billion invested in about 850 Chinese companies at the end of 2022, according to the statement.
The closure comes at a time when some of the biggest money managers in the world are cutting their China exposure and downsizing local operations amid sluggish market performance and rising geopolitical tensions. The MSCI China Index tracking more than 700 companies listed at home and abroad has slipped by about 6 per cent this year, underperforming the MSCI World Index which has advanced by 13.6 per cent.