or SF, meaning State Enterprise is a type of

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether Natural person, natural, Juridical person, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. SFs are wholly owned by the

Government of Norway The Council of State () is a formal body composed of the most senior government minister (government), ministers chosen by the Prime Minister of Norway, Prime Minister, and functions as the collective decision-making organ constituting the Go ...

, but it does not hold unlimited liability in the company. The government is free to convert any (limited company) that it owns, or any other assets, to an SF, without approval by other parties. The companies do have a

board of directors A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...

and a

managing director A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

. The board must have at least three members; five if there is employee representation. The managing director can not sit on the board. All SFs must have an

auditor An auditor is a person or a firm appointed by a company to execute an audit.Practical Auditing, Kul Narsingh Shrestha, 2012, Nabin Prakashan, Nepal To act as an auditor, a person should be certified by the regulatory authority of accounting an ...

History

The SF was created by the ''State Enterprise Act'' of August 30, 1991 (#71). Initially there were few SFs, but gradually there were created more, mainly by converting government agencies to SFs. During the 2000s the Conservative/Christian Democrat/Liberal government converted some of the SFs to limited companies, including

Statkraft Statkraft AS is a hydropower Hydropower (from Ancient Greek -, "water"), also known as water power or water energy, is the use of falling or fast-running water to Electricity generation, produce electricity or to power machines. This is ac ...

(the state power company). Some s: * Gassnova * Enova SF * SIVA SF * Statnett SF * Statskog SF * Bane NOR SF

References

*''State Enterprise Act'' (''Lov om statsforetak'') of August 30, 1991 #71 {{Norwegian type of company Types of companies of Norway