Statoil downgrade by Moody's hits Norwegian funds
Statoil, the biggest listed Norwegian company by market capitalisation on the Oslo exchange, has seen its share price fall after Moody’s joined Standard & Poor’s and downgraded the company’s senior unsecured debt.
The rating for senior unsecured debt has dropped to Aa3 from Aa2, reports local business daily Dagens Næringsliv. The downgrade follows a previous drop to Aa- from A+ at rival ratings agency Standard & Poor’s.
As of 01.19 CET on 21 March, Statoil shares were down about 1.7% at about NOK133. The share price had rallied over the previous two months, as the share price dipped below NOK100 on 20 January.
The company is a staple for many Norwegian funds. For example, it accounted for some 3.88% of holdings in the Delphi Nordic portfolio from Delphi Funds as of the end of February.
The Delphi Norge fund has over 8% of the portfolio in Statoil shares.
Odin Norge shows a 6.7% exposure, according to FE data.
And Storebrand Norge has 14.65% of the portfolio in Statoil.
An indication of the weighting of Statoil in the Norwegian market comes in the holdings data for the Storebrand Indeks Norge fund; where it accounts for 16.12% of the portfolio, according to Morningstar Norway data.
