Press release from the Nobel Foundation

The Nobel Foundation’s 2016 asset management and earnings

27 April 2017 View in Swedish
A bust of Alfred Nobel, surrounded by a beautiful wall of flowers

A bust of Alfred Nobel, surrounded by a beautiful wall of flowers donated by the Chamber of Commerce of Imperia, Sanremo and the Town of Sanremo: carnations in various pink and wine red nuances, light pink chrysanthemums, pink amaryllis and roses in various pink hues.

© Nobel Media AB 2016. Photo: Pi Frisk

The Nobel Foundation is ultimately responsible for ensuring that the intentions of the will of Alfred Nobel are fulfilled. The main mission of the Foundation is to manage the assets left behind by Nobel, as well as the extensive intellectual property related to the Nobel Prize that has developed during more than a century. The institutions that Alfred Nobel designated in his will to select Laureates select the Trustees of the Nobel Foundation. Their most important tasks are to appoint the Nobel Foundation’s Board of Directors and to examine the Nobel Foundation’s financial statements. At the meeting of the Trustees on Thursday, April 27, 2017, the Nobel Foundation’s 2016 financial statements were presented.

The Nobel Foundation’s 2016 return on portfolio capital was 6.9 (7.3) per cent. The market value of the Foundation’s portfolio capital (total invested capital excluding directly owned properties) amounted to SEK 4,007 m (3,854). At year-end, portfolio capital was allocated among 50 per cent equities, 17 per cent fixed income assets and 33 per cent alternative assets.

The market value of the Foundation’s total invested capital (i.e. including directly owned properties) amounted to SEK 4,241 m (4,065) at the end of 2016. This represented an increase of more than one billion Swedish kronor since 2011.

During 2016 the Nobel Foundation adopted the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investments (PRI). By subscribing to these principles, the Foundation has committed itself to incorporating issues related to the environment, social responsibility and corporate governance in its operations. One concrete step aimed at contributing to sustainable development is the Foundation’s decision to invest some of its fixed-income assets in green bonds – a type of holding whose assets are used for various forms of environmental projects. The target is for at least 50 per cent of the Nobel Foundation’s directly owned bonds to consist of green bonds. The ambition is to achieve this goal as soon as possible. 

“In its asset management, the ambition of the Nobel Foundation is to contribute to sustainable long-term global development and to follow good ethical principles. This is especially important for an organisation like the Nobel Foundation, whose task is to work for the greatest benefit to mankind, in keeping with Alfred Nobel’s intentions,” says Lars Heikensten, Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation. 

Board appointments

At the meeting of the Trustees, Lawyer Berit Reiss-Andersen, Dep Chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, was appointed as a member of the Nobel Foundation’s Board of Directors and Professor Gunnar Ingelman, Secretary of the Nobel Committee for Physics, was appointed as a deputy member.

In some of the externally financed public entities of the Nobel sphere, new Board members have been appointed. Mia Horn af Rantzien, Director of SNS Swedish Centre of Business & Policy Studies, and Karin Hedensjö Pettersson, Political Editor-in-Chief at the newspaper Aftonbladet, were appointed to the Board of Nobel Media AB. In addition, Bente Erichsen, former Director of the Nobel Peace Center, and Professor Henrik Syse, a member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, were appointed to the Board of Nobel Peace Prize – Research & Information AS. Furthermore, Benny Fredriksson, Managing Director of Kulturhuset Stadsteatern in Stockholm; and Bente Erichsen, former Director of the Nobel Peace Center, were appointed to the Board of the Nobel Center Foundation.

The Board of Directors of the Nobel Foundation

  • Professor Carl-Henrik Heldin, Chairman 
  • Professor Göran K. Hansson, Vice Chairman, Secretary General of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
  • Professor Thomas Perlmann, Secretary of the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine
  • Professor Sara Danius, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy
  • Lawyer Berit Reiss-Andersen, Dep Chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee
  • Mr Tomas Nicolin, MSc
  • Dr Lars Heikensten, Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation

Deputy members of the Board

  • Professor Gunnar Ingelman, Secretary of the Nobel Committee for Physics
  • Professor Gunnar von Heijne, Secretary of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry

The Trustees of the Nobel Foundation are presented here: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_organizations/nobelfoundation/trustees.html

The Nobel Foundation’s Annual Report for 2016 and an Annual Review are available here:
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_organizations/nobelfoundation/

For information about the announcements of this year’s Nobel Prize, please visit: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/about/prize_announcements/index.html

Nobel Foundation

The Nobel Foundation is a private foundation established in 1900 on the basis of the will of Alfred Nobel and the founding statutes promulgated in connection with the will. Its primary purpose is to ensure that the intentions of the will of Alfred Nobel are fulfilled. The Foundation is responsible for ensuring that the assets made available for awarding the Nobel Prize are managed in such a way as to safeguard the economic base of the Prize in a long-term perspective and guarantee the independence of the prize-awarding institutions in their work of selecting Laureates. The Nobel Foundation is also entrusted with managing and carefully developing the trademarks and intangible assets that have been built up during the more than century-long history of the Nobel Prize.

Contacts
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