US Smith College divests from Indian firms over Sudan
May 11, 2007 (WASHINGTON) — Smith College, the largest privately funded college for women in the US, has decided to divest from nine Indian companies among several globally for their trade relations with Sudan.
The college’s Board of Trustees, at a meeting on May 5, voted unanimously against investing in such entities to protest the Sudanese government’s campaign of genocide in Darfur region.
In a release posted on its website, the Massachusetts- based Smith College said it would stop investing in India’s state-run Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd, Indian Oil Corp, Oil and Natural Gas Company and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd.
Besides, it would stay away from private players Reliance Industries, Reliance Energy, Reliance Capital Venture, Reliance Communications and Reliance Natural Resources Ltd.
The release, however, did not disclose the nature or size of investments it had made in these companies in the past.
The college will also divest its holdings – valued at approximately US$1.18 million – from the French energy company Schlumberger Ltd., whose Sudan operations provide oil and gas field services to the country’s oil consortia.
Smith joins a number of higher education institutions that now ban investment in Schlumberger, including Amherst and Williams colleges and Brown University.
The decision to withhold investment is part of efforts by private organisations in the US to encourage a policy change in a foreign country — in this case, “the end of the genocidal policies of the Sudanese government,” said Mary Patterson McPherson, chair of the Board of Trustees.
(ST)