Sudan/US

US pension fund threatens to divest from Sudan-linked companies

Article published on the 2009-03-28 Latest update 2009-03-28 17:44 TU

The New York-based pension fund manager, TIAA-Cref, has threatened to divest from companies with links to the Sudanese government to protest human rights abuses in the western Darfur region. The company, which manages 363 billion dollars, encourages companies that work with Sudan to take “meaningful steps to ease suffering”.

 

“We recognize that genocide and crimes against humanity, whether in Darfur or elsewhere, require a higher standard of response,” said the company in a statement.

“We believe that divestment should be considered as a last resort, only after efforts to pressure companies to revisit and change their policies have failed.”

TIAA-Cref gives companies nine months to improve, or else it will pull its investments. The companies targeted include the Chinese companies PetroChina and Sinopec, CNPC Hong Kong, India's Oil and Natural Gas, and and Malaysia's Petronas. 

This statement has been hailed by rights groups who have been campaigning for US money managers to divest from PetroChina and other companies with ties to the Sudanese oil industry.

Eric Cohen, Chair of Investors Against Genocide, calls the move a “breakthrough”

“PetroChina ought to be very concerned about this, because TIAA-Cref is one of the largest pension fund managers in the world and they’ve called on other financial institutions to join them in their actions,” he told RFI.

Cohen says the Vanguard Group, which manages mutual funds and pensions, has also made similar moves.

He says in a 10 March filing with the Security and Exchange Committee, Vanguard “said they had recently instituted a policy that was substantially identical to the shareholder proposal that we have been submitting to financial institutions. And that proposal calls for fiscal institutions to avoid holding stocks in companies like PetroChina that substantially contribute to genocide.”

“We have high expectations that Vanguard may be moving in this very same direction as TIAA-Cref but not quite as publicly,” added Cohen.

Harvard University divested from Sudan in 2005, and dozens of other universities have followed suit.