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UNKNOWN: In October of last year, Yngve Slyngstad announced that he would resign as an administrator of oil funds. Photo: Trond Solberg, VG
Nicolai Tangen paid for the hotel, stay, and flight home when oil fund manager Yngve Slyngstad attended the Tangens USA seminar in November. Norges Bank announces Saturday night that they will investigate the trip.
VG wrote Saturday morning about Nicolai Tang’s “dream seminar,” which he hosted at his old Pennsylvania university in November. Tangen, who was introduced as the new head of the Petroleum Fund in March, flew the guests on two private planes.
The Manager of the Oil Drainage Fund Yngve Slyngstad was invited as a guest and initiator of the seminar. The forceps covered hotel, food and beverage and entertainment costs for three days, as well as the business class return.
VG has asked Norges Bank several questions about the seminar on Friday and Saturday. On Saturday night, the bank announces that it will investigate the trip.
– Yngve Slyngstad has stated that he was invited as part of the bank’s operations. Slyngstad notes that he should have taken regular flights home covered by Norges Bank. Norges Bank will now take the trip to ensure it is approached in accordance with the bank’s ethical standards, Norges Bank President Øystein Olsen says in a comment relayed to VG through press officer Marthe Skaar.
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The new administrator of the oil fund
Slyngstad had a few weeks before Tangen’s trip in November announced that he would resign. It happened on October 30.
About four months later, on March 26, Norges Bank announced that Tangen will take over after Slyngstad.
– Of course, a theme
In an interview with VG on Friday, Slyngstad said that he has known Tangen for four years.
– The first time was in 2016, when he was invited to one of our conferences, where he participated in a panel.
– Was it because you were an oil fund manager that you went on a trip?
– Yes it was.
– Did you talk to Tangen about the vacancy at the seminar?
– Of course it was a topic at the seminar. I had submitted my resignation on October 25 and the seminar in Tangen was in mid-November. They wondered why he would quit smoking and who should take over. It was not a special topic between me and Tangen.
– Did you ask him if he was considering applying?
– We talked about the position, but I have not recommended or asked anyone to apply.
– Did you want Tangen as your successor?
– He may have told him and everyone else there that we need good people in that position, says Slyngstad.
He certainly refuses to have recorded or mentioned Tang’s name to those responsible for the hiring process.
– I have made it very clear that as a switch it should have no impact on the process. That was the task of the board.
Paid pliers
– Did you pay for your trip and stay related to the Tang seminary?
– No, we adhere to the same rules as when we organize seminars: we take into account the travel and subsistence expenses for those who sit on the panel and occupy positions.
– Didn’t you pay the trip?
– No, I flew to the United States with Norwegian on the Norway Bank account, because I was at another event first. I took the train to Pennsylvania. I boarded the plane to Tangen, home to Oslo, because it was the most appropriate thing, says Slyngstad.
Its Governor, Central Bank Governor Øystein Olsen, led by his office as Chairman of the Board of the Norges Bank, worked to find Slyngstad’s successor.
CONFUSION TOUR: Norges Bank CEO Øystein Olsen and drain fund manager Yngve Slyngstad (t.h.) discuss their relationship with incoming oil fund manager Nicolai Tangen. Photo: Helge Mikalsen
On Friday, Olsen told VG that it was the headhunter, Russell Reynolds, who found Tangen.
– It was the recruiting company we used: your name appeared early in your search.
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Olsen says he didn’t know Tangen before.
– No, I haven’t seen him before in the hiring process.
– Did you know that Tangen and Slyngstad knew each other?
– I knew about the trip and I know that they met in various contexts. How well they know each other is almost asked.
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New head of the Petroleum Fund, Nicolai Tangen.
Olsen: Pay for those trips yourself
– When were you informed about the scope and the participants of the tour?
– There was great openness with us about the trip, but I only found out later about the program and the participants. The trip was not part of the hiring process anyway and Slyngstad was not involved in that process.
– Was this tour discussed in the hiring process?
– No.
– Is it okay for managers to take paid trips with you?
– For Norges Bank it is true that we say yes to such invitations. If we choose to say yes, we will pay for those trips ourselves, says the VG governor.
The “Supplemental Code of Ethics for Employees at the Norges Bank” states the ban on in-service gifts, which also includes invitations. The main rule is that Norges Bank will cover travel and seminar expenses, unless otherwise agreed.
You can read the key points in the data box below:
Key point in ethical regulations.
He says he should have taken regular flights
Slyngstad argued before VG on Friday that ethical principles do not affect the Tang seminar:
– Norges Bank’s ethical principles refer to business relationships. AKO (publisher: Tang company Ako Capital) is not a business relationship.
VG emailed new questions to Oil Fund press officer Marthe Skaar on Friday afternoon, including whether it was agreed with the immediate Slyngstad leader that the cost of the trip was covered by Tangen.
She sent the following response from Slyngstad on Friday afternoon.
“I was invited in the role of the Administrator of the Petroleum Fund to give a lecture at an academic institution. It was in the capacity that I attended. “
“It was my consideration to take this plane. This is the first time I have flown more than just regular flights covered by Norges Bank. Of course, I would rather take the train back to New York and take regular flights home.”
– Will Norway and the Petroleum Fund benefit?
Nicolai Tangen says he understands that VG asks about the consolidations, how he got the job as an oil fund manager, and about consumption at the seminar.
– I understand that, but I do not see international acquaintances as something negative, on the contrary. That expression may be a little annoying in Norway, but the kind of international relations that I have developed will benefit Norway and the Petroleum Fund in the future, he says.
THE SEED: Nicolai Tangen talks about when the seed of his candidacy was planted. Photo: Nina E. Rangoy
Tangen says Russell Reynolds invited him to lunch in London in early December 2019.
– In this conversation, the concrete seed was sown for me, about the ongoing process and the concrete opportunity in NBIM, he says.
– You invited the man to follow: isn’t it unnatural for you to talk about who should take care of him?
– It is true that Slyngstad had signaled his departure before the seminar was held. But he was invited 18 months earlier and was there to join a panel on what the future of capitalism might be like. Incidentally, it has had no influence on the recruitment process. It was the board that chose me.
