Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2667 actions· ✨ 89 recent

NIB, the multilateral development bank owned by the eight Nordic and Baltic member states, signed a NOK 1 billion (EUR 86 million / USD 100 million) loan with Hafslund AS, Norway's second-largest renewable energy group and largest district-heating supplier. The loan is split into two NOK 500 million tranches with eight- and eleven-year tenors and finances three projects: reconstruction of the Braskereidfoss hydropower dam and plants on the Glomma River (destroyed by Storm Hans in 2023), construction of the 20 MW Skygard data centre at Økern, Oslo, and an upgrade of Aker Hospital's district-heating connection. NIB financing is provided at preferential development-bank rates relative to commercial project finance, functioning as a below-market state-backed subsidy to strategic domestic energy and digital infrastructure.

NIB, the multilateral development bank owned by the eight Nordic and Baltic member states, signed a EUR 30 million, 15-year loan with Norwegian utility Sogn og Fjordane Energi AS (SFE) to finance the rebuild of the Øksenelvane hydropower plant in Western Norway. The new station, built alongside the existing 70-year-old facility to keep generation running through construction, will add roughly 21 GWh/y of output and nearly quadruple capacity, with completion expected in 2028. NIB's below-market development-bank funding cost functions as a state-adjacent subsidy for Norwegian renewable-energy infrastructure.

Lov 2023-06-20 nr. 77 (Lov om endringer i sikkerhetsloven — eierskapskontroll og lovens virkeområde), adopted by the Storting on 9 June 2023, signed 20 June 2023, in force 1 July 2023, is Norway's first substantive overhaul of Chapter 10 (Eierskapskontroll / ownership control) of the 2018 Security Act (Sikkerhetsloven). The amendment widens the scope of undertakings that can be brought under ownership control beyond entities directly linked to a "grunnleggende nasjonal funksjon" (fundamental national function) to include businesses of vital importance to national-security interests and businesses of significant importance to fundamental national functions, lowers and adds notification thresholds, and equips the King in Council with enhanced powers to block, condition, or unwind qualifying acquisitions. The reform converts a narrow security-classified regime into a broad horizontal FDI-screening architecture for Norway, the host of the world's largest sovereign wealth fund and a NATO frontline state.