Norway’s sovereign wealth fund owned stakes worth almost 2 billion kroner ($208 million) in Turkish companies now caught up in the country’s widening market-manipulation investigation.
Norges Bank Investment Management held shares in 10 companies that prosecutors or regulators have linked to the case, according to data published on its website dated June 30. The holdings, which amount to almost 10% of the 20.4 billion kroner of Turkish shares held by NBIM on that date, have since plunged in value amid the sweeping probe.
Turkish prosecutors are examining the role played by investment funds in amassing thinly traded stocks and allegedly driving up their value as part of a probe that has rattled the country’s markets. Several of the funds being investigated held big stakes in stocks that were also owned by Oslo-based NBIM. The wealth fund also bought shares in one of the finance firms at the heart of the crisis, Tera Yatirim Menkul Degerler AS, filings show.
A spokesperson for NBIM declined to comment on whether it still owned the stocks. The sovereign wealth fund, the world’s biggest with $2.3 trillion in assets, publishes its holdings twice a year and doesn’t comment on any changes in between, the spokesperson said.
Most of the 10 companies have lost much of their value since June 30. Its biggest investment among the group was a 2% stake in Astor Enerji AS, an Istanbul-based electrical-equipment maker that has fallen 41% this month.
NBIM previously relied on an external manager called Istanbul Portfoy Yonetimi AS to manage about $600 million of its holdings in Turkish shares. That relationship ended last year soon after regulators fined one of Istanbul Portfoy’s managing partners for a form of market manipulation in shares of two local companies, Bloomberg reported in February.
NBIM chose Neo Asset Management as a new manager for Turkish stocks, people familiar with the matter said in June. While the Norwegian fund has disclosed holdings as of June 30, Neo only began working on the mandate after that date, a spokesperson for the firm said in an emailed statement.
“Norges began working with Neo Portfoy in July 2026,” the spokesperson said. “Therefore, these stocks were added to the portfolio before Norges began working with Neo Portfoy.”
US-based TRG Management also manages Turkish stocks on NBIM’s behalf, the people said. TRG didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Turkish prosecutors say that investment funds were used to drive up the prices of some illiquid stocks almost 100-fold. Dozens of people have been arrested and detained, including fund managers, finance executives and the heads of companies whose shares saw dizzying gains in recent months. Justice Minister Akin Gurlek has described “Ponzi-like schemes” that wiped out citizens’ savings.
The investigation began this month when two asset managers, Pusula Portfoy Yonetimi AS and a Tera unit called Tera Portfoy Yonetimi AS, failed to pay out investors in their funds. On Sept. 16, a circuit breaker halted trading after the benchmark Borsa Istanbul 100 Index fell more than 6%. The next day, the Turkish Capital Markets Board suspended 131 funds run by seven firms and ordered them liquidated.
Founded in the 1990s to invest Norway’s oil and gas wealth, NBIM generated a record gain of 1.8 trillion kroner in the first half of the year, helped by its holdings in global technology companies. This month, the fund proposed cutting the amount of government bonds it owns to boost holdings of riskier debt.
While NBIM invests most of its vast wealth in line with a bespoke index set by the Norwegian Finance Ministry, a sliver of its investments are actively managed.
NBIM bought stakes in most of the 10 Turkish companies during 2025, including positions in Tera and a related company, Tera Yatirim Teknoloji Holding AS, filings show. Emre Tezmen, founder and chairman of the Istanbul-based firm, has been arrested while shares in both companies have tumbled. He has denied any wrongdoing.
The wealth fund’s second-biggest holding among the companies was Destek Finans Faktoring AS, an invoice-factoring firm in which it bought a 0.17% stake during 2025, filings show. Shares in Destek — which was taken public by Tera’s investment bank and owned by the firm’s funds — surged more than 600% this year to a peak market value of 1.3 trillion lira ($27.9 billion) in July.
The stock has since lost much of its value while founder Altunc Kumova has been arrested and a Tera fund manager has been referred to prosecutors over trading in the stock.
NBIM also added to its positions this year. One of its holdings was a stake in Odine Solutions Teknoloji Ticaret VE Sanayi AS, a technology company in Istanbul also backed by a Pusula fund, filings and Bloomberg data show. Shares soared 987% this year to an Aug. 12 peak that valued the Istanbul-based company at 366 billion lira. They have since plunged 94%.
A detention warrant has been issued for Cengiz Avci, a shareholder of Odine, Demiroren News Agency reported Wednesday.
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