The Director-General of the Norwegian National Heritage Fund, Yngve Slyngstad, has decided to resign, reports Bloomberg. The top manager will continue to work as CEO until a successor is found. Slyngstad pondered the decision for more than a year. He decided to leave his post after the state of the fund reached 10 trillions about $ 1.1 trillion. “The size of the fund has more than doubled since I took office, at that time it was only part of the foreign exchange reserves,” Slyngstad explained.

Slyngstad has been working in the fund since 1998 and has headed it for the past 12 years. He holds degrees in politics, economics, law, business, and philosophy. After leaving the post of CEO, Slyngstad plans to continue working in the fund, but in a different position in London, Reuters notes. He expects to “swap roles after a few blocks,” the agency said. According to Bloomberg, over the next two years, the top manager will create a division of the fund that will invest in finance companies operating in the field of renewable energy.

Oeystein Olsen, chairman of the Central Bank of Norway, said at a press conference that a search for a successor had already begun. The regulator is “very pleased” with the work of Slyngstad as CEO, Olsen noted. “Over the 12 years the fund has achieved very good results, it has achieved strong positions in the international market and in Norway,” explained Olsen.

The Norwegian National Heritage Fund was established in 1990 and is now the largest asset in the world. In the third quarter of this year, the value of the fund’s assets grew by $ 62.8 billion to $ 1.05 trillion, mainly due to fluctuations in the Norwegian currency, the fund’s website said. Income from investments in the reporting period amounted to 1.59%, about $ 25.6 billion. The fund explains the increase in this indicator with the rise in prices of shares of American companies. Securities of American companies, which account for 40% of investments, rose in price by 2.9%. The largest share in the shares of the fund are securities of Microsoft, Apple, Nestle and Alphabet. Now the Norwegian fund owns approximately 1.4% of all shares in the world.