Norway fund giant Norges cuts off Adani Ports
acquisition of Haifa port in Israel, which has pounded Gaza after a shock attack by Hamas, sparked the Norges decision. A fourth of India's total cargo is handled by APSEZ, which owns a total of 14 ports including in Israel, Australia and Sri Lanka. An email sent to Norges seeking comment went unanswered.
APSEZ did not offer a comment on the fund's decision. Norges owned 0.24% of APSEZ at the end of December 2023. Billionaire Gautam Adani, the company's promoter, owned 65.89% of APSEZ, which had a market cap of ₹2,90,484 crore as of 16 May.
Norges also owns 0.17% of Adani Green Energy and 0.12% of Adani Total Gas Ltd. Investors shrugged off the decision, with APSEZ's shares rising 0.56% higher to close at ₹1344.75 on Thursday. "Investor activism makes companies change behaviour," said Sharmila Gopinath, a specialist adviser for India at the Asian Corporate Governance Association.
"Now, a lot of thought must have gone before Norges, which is the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, arrived at this decision. Norges, in simple words, is saying, my money can talk and I will not give my money if a company is not doing business that is environmentally sound or abiding by corporate governance. But please understand that sovereign wealth funds do not expect companies to change in the short term, say one or two years.
A change will happen in how these companies do business in 5-10 years. And I believe decisions by government-backed Norges also make other pension and large institutional investors consider their ESG metrics before investing." Norges owns 1.5% of the world’s listed companies, and owns shares in a little over 300 companies in India, according to an analysis by Mint. Its exclusion list currently has 192 companies,
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