Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages $1.8tn for Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global, has published a new three-year strategic plan. The plan – which outlines the fund’s priorities – includes a push to diversify NBIM’s renewable energy investments towards a broader range of technologies and more indirect investments.
The strategic blueprint, the fund says, supports its core mandate of maximising long-term, risk-adjusted returns.
“The strategy sets out how we will work to become the best and most respected large investment fund in the world. We look forward to putting it into action over the next three years”, commented NBIM chief executive Nicolai Tangen.
As part of it, NBIM is set to diversify its exposure to renewable infrastructure. These investments have been hitherto focused on an unlisted portfolio of solar and wind energy assets.
In H1 2025, returns from these holdings were estimated at 9.4%, compared to listed equity returns of 6.7% and fixed income returns of 3.3%.
“To take full advantage of the investable market, we will continue to invest directly in wind and solar power and increase investments in distribution and storage as investment opportunities arise”, the plan reads.
In addition to investing in a more diverse range of technologies, the fund will look to increase indirect exposure. In September this year, NBIM announced an inaugural transition fund investment in Brookfield Asset Management’s Global Transition Fund II.
According to the 2028 strategic plan, this could be a sign of things to come.
“We will gradually invest more through indirect structures. These are resource-efficient and suited for technologies where individual assets are small or as a first step to investing in new markets and technologies”, NBIM’s plan outlines.
Another strategic blueprint - NBIM’s 2030 Climate Action Plan - published earlier this year, echoes this embrace of renewable energy infrastructure as an investment opportunity.
This push for more unlisted, indirect, infrastructure exposure is not intended to replace its listed markets investments. NBIM’s latest thinking suggests the fund is looking for synergies between private and public market opportunities.
