Press release from the Nobel Foundation

The Nobel Foundation’s 2017 asset management and earnings

1 May 2018

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 elect 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 Friday, April 27, 2018, the Nobel Foundation’s 2017 financial statements were presented.

The market value of the Foundation’s total invested capital amounted to SEK 4,496 m (4,241) at the end of 2017. This represented an increase of more than one and a half billion Swedish kronor since 2011.

The market value of the Nobel Foundation’s portfolio capital – the Foundation’s total invested capital excluding the value of its two directly owned properties − amounted to SEK 4,263 m (4,007) at the end of 2017. This portfolio capital was allocated among 50 (50) per cent equity funds, 7 (7) per cent property funds, 17 (17) per cent fixed income investments, 25 (26) per cent alternative assets and 1 per cent accrued currency hedging income. The Foundation’s 2017 return on portfolio capital was 8.7 (6.9) per cent.

The Nobel Foundation’s guidelines for responsible investments

In its asset management, the Nobel Foundation wishes to follow good ethical principles and contribute to sustainable long-term global development. In choosing investments, the Foundation observes internationally accepted norms and conventions related to the environment, human rights, labour, anti-corruption and controversial weapons. These are defined today on the basis of the United Nations Global Compact. In addition, the Foundation does not wish to invest in companies that produce nuclear weapons or companies in which a significant proportion of revenue comes from coal extraction or coal power generation.

The guidelines briefly describe how the Foundation pursues this task. Ethical and sustainability-related aspects are observed when new investments are being considered, existing asset managers are subjected to investor influence, while companies that violate established investment criteria are excluded.

The Nobel Foundation is a signatory of the UN’s Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). Among other things, this means that the Foundation openly reports on its efforts in this area once a year.

The Nobel Foundation’s guidelines for responsible investment are being published today.

Board appointments 

In one of the externally financed public entities of the Nobel sphere, a new Board member was appointed. Mårten Castenfors, director of Liljevalchs konsthall, was appointed to the Board of the Nobel Center Foundation.

The Board of Directors of the Nobel Foundation, 2018

Professor Carl-Henrik Heldin, Chairman 

Professor Göran K. Hansson, Vice Chairman 
Secretary General of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Dr Lars Heikensten 
Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation

Professor Thomas Perlmann 
Secretary of the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet and of the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine

Professor Sara Danius

Berit Reiss-Andersen, Attorney
Chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee

Mr Tomas Nicolin, MSc

Deputy members of the Board

Professor Gunnar von Heijne 
Secretary of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry

Professor Gunnar Ingelman 
Secretary of the Nobel Committee for Physics 

The Nobel Foundation’s guidelines for responsible investment are available here:                                https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_organizations/nobelfoundation/guidelines_investments_18.pdf

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 2017 and an Annual Review are available here: 
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_organizations/nobelfoundation/annual_report_17.pdf
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_organizations/nobelfoundation/annual_review_17.pdf

 

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.

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