OSLO (Reuters) -Norway’s wealth fund, the world’s largest, has sold all its fixed income investments in Mexican state oil firm Pemex, it said on Sunday, citing what it called an unacceptable risk that the company is involved in corruption.
The fund’s ethics watchdog, the Council on Ethics, said “its investigations have revealed that Pemex may be linked to multiple allegations or suspicions of corruption in Mexico in the period 2004-2023,” it said in a statement.
“The Council attaches importance to the fact that a significant number of company employees, including a former senior executive, are alleged to have received bribes on several separate occasions.”
Pemex was not immediately reachable for comment outside of regular business hours.
The $1.8 trillion fund, which owns 1.5% of listed shares across 9,000 companies globally, operates under guidelines set by Norway’s parliament and is seen as a leader in the environmental, social and governance field.
(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche; Editing by David Gregorio)
