Press Release - Annual Meeting of the Trustees of the Nobel Foundation

The 2003 Financial Management of the Nobel Foundation

At their meeting on Friday, April 23, the Trustees of the Nobel Foundation approved the 2003 financial statements of the Foundation:

• On December 31, 2003, the market value of the Foundation's invested capital amounted to SEK 2,871 m (2,791). Total return on assets – growth in Foundation assets after adding back the year's disbursements – amounted to 7.2 percent (-21.4).

• Net assets, that is, the market value of equity calculated as invested capital at market value adjusted for other balance sheet items, rose by 3.3 percent (-24.4).

• The value of the Foundation's stock portfolio, which amounted to SEK 1,536 m at year-end, changed by 14.0 percent during 2003. The annual average for the last five years' return on assets is 1.3 percent, which exceeds a weighted comparative index by 2.7 percentage points per annum. During the same period, the MSCI World Index showed an average annual change of -3.1 percent.

• The return on the Foundation's bond portfolio during 2003 was 5.5 percent, exceeding a comparative index by 0.2 percentage points. The market value of this portfolio totaled SEK 980 m at year-end.

• Each of the 2004 Nobel Prizes (Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature and Peace) will amount to SEK 10.0 m (10.0). The total amount of all five Nobel Prizes is SEK 50.0 m. In addition, the Bank of Sweden (Sveriges Riksbank) Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel will amount to SEK 10.0 m.

Stockholm, April 23, 2004

THE NOBEL FOUNDATION / Michael Sohlman, Executive Director