CalSTRS to divest holdings in Sudan-linked firms
April 7, 2006 (SACRAMENTO ) — The California State Teacher’s Retirement System has decided to divest holdings in five companies doing business in Sudan, in protest of human rights abuses in the country’s Darfur region.
The board of CalSTRS, the nation’s second largest public pension fund, voted 9-0 on Thursday to direct its staff to prepare divestment of about $14 million in stock that the fund holds in the companies.
The decision follows a motion by state Treasurer Phil Angelides to pull back funds from the five companies that have business ties with the Sudanese government.
The companies are China’s China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. and PetroChina Co.; Tatneft OAO of Russia; and Petronas Dagangan Berhad and Petronas Gas Berhad of Malaysia.
State Treasurer Phil Angelides, who made the motion to divest, said the vote was “a wake-up call that American investment funds should not support a regime that has perpetrated systematic attacks against its own citizens.”
The decision mirrors a March 16 unanimous vote by the University of California Board of Regents to sell assets from nine companies operating in Sudan.
The $200-billion California Public Employees’ Retirement System is talking to the five companies in its portfolio that run subsidiaries in Sudan, which is torn by civil strife. The fund’s board expects to hear an update in June about the companies’ dealings with the Sudanese government.
The Sudanese government said it welcomed investment by foreign companies as a way to bring peace and reconstruction to the country.
(Los Angeles Times/Business Times/ST)