unlisted investments in renewable energy infrastructure. nbim has a group in place that has begun to seek out opportunities in this sector. we set the same risk and return requirements for the investments under these mandates as for the rest of the fund ’ s investments. everything we do in the area of ownership is, and must be, a result of an active approach. in our active management, we seek at all times to make the most of analyses we have performed and the knowledge we have acquired over the past 20 years. our internal asset managers closely follow the largest european companies in particular. knowing the companies well puts the fund in position where it is possible to earn excess returns. external management in emerging markets, we benefit greatly from our use of external asset managers. knowledge of and proximity to markets are essential for being able to assess the risk of investments. in view of challenges associated with responsible investment, a passive investment strategy is not really appropriate in these markets. this is an area where active choices must be made. we look at the choice of external asset managers as an investment decision. since 1998, we have invested through 319 different external active equity managers. to retain their mandates, they must show over time that they can identify profitable investments. they must also take responsible investment into account. the fund ’ s size and breadth enable us to follow up the external asset managers systematically over time. internally, we employ portfolio managers who perform their own analyses and monitor the external asset managers ’ portfolios. all aspects of the activities of these managers are evaluated to ensure that they meet our requirements and expectations. chart : net relative return. external asset managers we get back much more from external asset managers than we have paid for their services. in the period to 2019, cumulative excess return after costs associated with external mandates has 4 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches been nok 48 billion. the results have exceeded expectations. at the same time, these investments spread the fund ’ s risk across more markets. external asset managers also help the fund to steer clear of problematic business models and companies and sectors with weak ownership structures. it would have been difficult to achieve without local knowledge. the executive board intends to raise the limit for the external management mandates to 5 percent of the fund next year. conclusion the fund has become larger than anyone could have imagined only a few years ago. how we manage the fund in the best way possible and ensure that its assets benefit current and future generations alike is a question that is more relevant than ever

we conduct more than 3500 meetings with close to 2000 companies in the course of a year. in these discussions, we bring up matters such corporate governance and sustainability that are relevant to the fund ’ s long - term return. at the same time, our ownership work can also lead to investment decisions. this underpins our ownership work. responsible investment requires active ownership. active management and active ownership are closely related. the bank ’ s investment management organisation analyses these companies thoroughly, in order to identify long - term investment opportunities, reduce the bank ’ s exposure to undesirable risk and the like. we use such analyses in order to safeguard the portfolio. there are companies 3 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches where we prefer not to be an owner. if we see that a company has a business model that we do not regard as sustainable, it may lead to divestment. but unlike the ethically justified divestments, these risk - based divestments are justified by purely commercial considerations. all together, the fund has made risk - based divestments of 282 companies since 2012. the first divestments were of palm oil companies, whose activities entail destruction of rainforests. since then, the fund has divested of a number of other companies, where the common denominator has been that we have observed inadequate management of risks such as those related to the environment and climate change, corruption and human rights. chart : return effects of risk - based divestments our experience from this work has been favourable. we exploit the fund ’ s characteristics, primarily its long - term horizon, to reduce risk and – in any case as it appears today – also to improve the fund ’ s return. since 2012, risk - based divestments have contributed to increasing the return by an amount equivalent to around 0. 27 percentage point of the value of the fund ’ s equity portfolio, measured against the benchmark index. this is the equivalent of around nok 7 billion. while risk - based divestments concern companies that we prefer not to invest in, there are other companies that we want more of. these are companies that, in our opinion, provide opportunities for solid returns in the longer term. in the mandate, the ministry of finance has also set a requirement for the bank to establish separate environment - related investment mandates. at the end of 2019, these mandates amounted to nok 79 billion invested in 77 companies and bonds. in 2019, the ministry also decided to permit