Norway's $900 billion fund drops 10 more companies with links to coal

OSLO (Reuters) - Norway's central bank, which manages the country's $900 billion wealth fund, has excluded another 10 companies from its investment portfolio because they use or produce coal, it said on Tuesday.

The fund is the world's biggest sovereign wealth fund, owning 1.3 percent of all listed company shares globally. As of the end of 2016, it owned shares in nearly 9,000 firms.

Norway's parliament decided in 2015 that the fund would sell holdings in companies that derive more than 30 percent of their turnover or activity from coal because it is a big contributer to climate change and air pollution.

The ten companies excluded on Tuesday are: CEZ, Eneva, Great River Energy, HK Electric Investments, Huidan Energy, Korea Electric Corp, Malakoff Corp, Otter Tail Corp , PGE and SDIC Power Holdings.

The central bank also said it had put two companies under observation for potential exclusion in the future. These are NorthWestern Corp and Portland General Electric.

After Tuesday's announcement, the fund has excluded 69 companies and placed 13 companies under observation for their use of coal, it said.

(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche, editing by Nerijus Adomaitis and Jane Merriman)