Oil fund earns 446 million on cannabis shares

marijuana plantMarijuana plant (AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File)

Since the New Year, the oil fund has earned NOK 446 million on five shares in medical marijuana.

At the beginning of 2019, the oil fund invested around NOK 910 million in these five companies.

The same shares are currently worth around NOK 1.36 billion wrotes Dagens Næringsliv newspaper.

The two largest cannabis investments are in ‘Aurora Cannabis’ and ‘Conopy Growth Cooperation’ where the shareholdings today are worth over NOK 400 million each.The two companies, as well as ‘Aphira Inc.’,entered the stock list last year in the specialised development and commercialisation of medical marijuana.

The other two companies, ‘Insys Therapeutics’ and ‘Scott’s Miracle Gro’, have been in the Oil Fund’s portfolio since 2015 and 2007, and have invested heavily in cannabis in recent years.

According to communications manager,Thomas Sevang of Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM),the fund’s managers have discussed the
ethical assessments of the cannabis investment with the Council on Ethics.

NBIM is responsible for shares and bonds, as well as having the overall responsibility for the Government Pension Fund Global, most commonly
known as the ‘oil fund’.

In total, the fund has shares in around 9,150 companies.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today