The Norwegian Oil Fund closes the “Tigergut” lecture to the public – E24

Planning to hear Ole Andreas Halvorsen speak at the Oil Fund’s conference? Most people can probably just forget that.

It has long been known that Ole Andreas Halvorsen, co-founder and managing director of the hedge fund Viking Global Investors, was to be a guest at the Oil Fund’s investment conference on 23 April.

What has not been known until recently are all the details of the program.

It says that the post with Ole Andreas Halvorsen “will be kept under the Chatham House rules and will not be streamed”.

The Chatham House rules in practice mean a ban on minutes, where what is said must not be reproduced outside the conference.

– Halvorsen’s own wish

– This is according to Halvorsen’s own wishes and something we respect, says the Oil Fund’s communications manager Line Aaltvedt in an e-mail to E24.

In the programme, the entry with Halvorsen is placed after the point “the official program ends”.

– Why is it outside the official programme?

– It is part of the official programme, but only for attendees.

The plan is for Halvorsen and Oljefondet’s boss Nicolai Tangen, who has built up a hedge fund himself, to talk about building an investment organisation.

– How will the outside world gain access to the lecture?

– Halvorsen will share his experiences with those present at the conference, but this part of the program will not be “streamed”.

– How are the Chatham House Rules compatible with compliance with the fund’s transparency and openness towards the Storting and the public?

– We ourselves have chosen to “stream” the conference, but do not have rights to share other people’s content without their consent, says Aaltvedt.

Success on Wall Street

The media-shy Halvorsen has been very successful on Wall Street with the fund Viking Global Investors.

He is the head of 150 employees with offices in Greenwich, New York, Hong Kong, London and San Francisco.

The fund manages over USD 42 billion, equivalent to around NOK 430 billion. When the fund started in 1999, the capital was 520 million dollars.

Halvorsen has featured high on Bloomberg’s lists of the best-paid hedge fund managers in the US.

NOK 63 billion

However, in 2022, when many stock markets fell heavily, he made a big loss, according to the news agency. Last year, the fund recovered and was able to show a positive return, according to Bloomberg.

On Kapital’s wealth list, Halvorsen, who was nicknamed “Tigergut” as a result of his time at Tiger Management in the 1990s, is in second place in 2023. His fortune was estimated at NOK 63 billion.

Halvorsen grew up in Borge in Fredrikstad, attended the Norwegian Naval Academy and then studied finance at Stanford University in California, where he graduated with top marks.