By Pirkko Juntunen
The Norwegian hedge fund industry has been in the news lately not because of the usual commiserations about it being ‘difficult’ in terms of regulation and tax but because of the backing Julian Robertson’s Tiger Management has given Trient Asset Management.
Despite the positive news, some paradoxes remain. The country has large assets pools such as the country’s Government Pension Fund Global, the former The Government Petroleum Fund that now tops almost $584 billion; the Government Pension Fund Norway, which was formerly The National Insurance Scheme Fund; as well as money from the shipping industry, the banking and insurance sectors, plus some other institutional investors such as pension funds and family offices. Yet despite this, allocating to hedge funds is stagnant or as Øistein Medlien, chief executive officer of Grieg Investor, puts it, “declining”.
Launched 14 years ago in 1998, Grieg Investor, which is...