Norway Wealth Fund Wins Labor Backing to Buy New Asset Classes

Norway’s largest political party will back a request by the nation’s $860 billion wealth fund to expand into new asset classes.

Provided the appropriate controls are in place, the opposition Labor Party sees no reason to stand in the fund’s way, said Jonas Gahr Stoere, Labor’s representative and first deputy chairman on the parliament’s finance committee. The decision marks a departure from Labor’s stance while in power. In 2011, the party blocked the wealth fund’s efforts to move into private equity and infrastructure investments.