NORWAY FUND DIVESTING FROM 2 COLORADO FIRMS

Norway’s Sovereign Wealth Fund, the world’s largest at $1 trillion, said Tuesday it will shed investments in two companies that play an important role in Colorado’s economy.

Norges Bank Investment Management, which oversees the money accumulated primarily from Norway’s oil and gas sales, will sell bonds worth about $43 million in Westminster-based Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association.

Tri-State was excluded for using coal to generate more than 30 percent of its electricity. Burning coal is on a list of activities the fund considers harmful, along with tobacco production, military weapon sales and corruption.

Tri-State, in a statement, said Norges Bank held just a little more than 1 percent of its outstanding debt and added that renewable sources would account for about a third of its generation this year.

“With investment grade credit ratings, there is a strong appetite and demand for Tri-State’s bonds in both the public and the private markets, and we remain confident in our ability to access the markets to meet our capital needs at competitive rates,” the power provider said.

JBS SA, the state’s largest meatpacker and a significant employer in Greeley, also made the excluded investment list. The fund, which held about $143 million in the Brazilian company’s shares at the end of last year, followed a recommendation in March from an ethics council that cited “risk due to gross corruption.”

Former members of the JBS management team and board of directors have admitted to bribing more than 1,800 politicians from 28 different political parties in Brazil over the past 15 years, the council said in making its recommendation.