US asset seizure not a credible threat, 'one of many risks' to monitor, Norway wealth fund says

By Gwladys Fouche

OSLO (Reuters) -Norway's $1.7 trillion sovereign wealth fund, which has invested over half its money in the United States, does not see a credible risk that its U.S. assets could be seized, the CEO of the fund's operator said on Thursday in response to media speculation.

Some 53.2% of the fund's assets were held in the U.S. by the end of last year, spread across equities, Treasuries and real estate.

Some commentators in the Nordic country have asked whether, given current uncertainties about U.S. economic policies, there could be a risk to its U.S. assets, such as asset seizure or a forced debt swap exchanging short-dated coupon-paying Treasuries for century bonds -- debt with payments 100 years into the future.

Asked on Thursday what it made of such a risk, Nicolai Tangen, the CEO of the fund's operator, Norges Bank Investment Management, said: "We look at these things, naturally. It is one of the many risk elements we look at. But we do not believe it is credible."

Tangen later told Reuters the fund "continuously monitors all risk elements of the fund".

"There is nothing new," he said. "We assess these things all the time."

NBIM, which invests the Norwegian state's revenues from oil and gas production, is one of the world's largest investors, owning on average 1.5% of all listed stocks worldwide. It also invests in bonds, real estate and renewable energy assets.

The fund's deputy CEO, Trond Grande, said the fund's margin for manoeuvre was limited. "Any change to the allocation to the U.S. is not something that we do, it is something that the politicians decide," Grande told Reuters.

"Of course a country can change its laws and seize assets - we have seen it with Russia - but it is probably something that you cannot guard against because you would have to not be invested there.

"And the best we can do is to make sure we have a well functioning custodian that helps us have the overview of the assets."

The fund's custodian is Citibank, Grande said. The fund had not been in touch with Citibank recently about this topic, he said.

TRUST IN US TREASURIES

Elsewhere, the fund said it had neither bought nor sold U.S. Treasuries during April, a period of high volatility, with markets roiled by President Donald Trump's tariff statements and his criticism of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for not cutting interest rates.

Norges Bank Investment Management held U.S. index linked bonds and Treasuries worth $157.5 billion at the end of 2024, around 9% of the fund's assets, up from $132.4 billion a year earlier, according to its website.

"We have not changed our view on U.S. Treasuries," Grande, the deputy CEO, said. "It is still the safest (assets) in the financial markets."

Overall, the fund had taken "very few actions" during that time because it has a long-term mandate, said Tangen. Instead, the volatility had been a period on occasions to buy stocks that were now cheaper, he added.

"We have had portfolio managers who would have done that. But we have not gone in massively from the leader group and made any changes," he said.

FIRST QUARTER

Earlier on Thursday, the fund reported a quarterly loss of 415 billion crowns ($39.72 billion) for the January to March period, largely driven by negative returns in the tech sector. The reporting period ended before the turmoil that hit markets in April.

The fund had a negative return on investment in the first quarter of 0.6%, which was 0.16 percentage point better than the return on its benchmark index.

The return on equity investments was a negative 1.6% while fixed income gained 1.6%, NBIM said.

At the end of the quarter, 70% of the fund's assets were in equities, down from 71.4% at the end of 2024, while bonds stood at 27.7% of the portfolio, up from 26.6%.

($1 = 10.4493 Norwegian crowns)

(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche, editing by Terje Solsvik, William Maclean)