American Funds Sells PetroChina as Rights Group Claims Victory
American Funds, the largest manager of stock mutual funds, sold most of its holdings in PetroChina Co. after pressure from rights groups over the oil-and-gas company’s investments in Sudan.
Three of the firm’s funds sold 167.9 million Hong Kong- listed shares in the past five months in Beijing-based PetroChina, currently valued at about $189 million, according to regulatory filings by Capital Group Cos., which owns the American Funds and manages $1.18 trillion.
Investors Against Genocide, a Boston-based human rights group, cast the selloff as the group’s second victory in as many months, after the announcement in January by nonprofit money manager TIAA-CREF that it had dumped shares of four Chinese companies, including PetroChina, doing business in Sudan. The organization has pressured asset managers to shun companies active in the east African country, whose Darfur region has been riddled with violence since 2003.
“We knew we were getting through to them with our message,” Eric Cohen, the group’s chairman, said today in an interview.
Chuck Freadhoff, a spokesman for Los Angeles-based Capital Group, said the fund company “never made top-down decisions that told investment professionals they had to buy or sell a specific holding.” American Funds has a policy that asks fund managers and analysts to take human-rights issues into consideration when making investment decisions, he said.
As many as 300,000 people have died in the Darfur strife, according to estimates from the United Nations. The U.S. government has accused Sudan’s government of committing genocide in the region.
‘Genocide-Free Investing’
Cohen said his group influenced the decision at American Funds by rallying shareholders to support a motion calling for “genocide-free investing” at a Nov. 24 shareholder meeting, and by talking with company executives. The November motions won as much as 12 percent support from shareholders.
The funds that sold all or most of their PetroChina shares since Aug. 31 were the $95.4 billion EuroPacific Growth Fund, the $77.5 billion Capital World Growth and Income Fund and the $76.9 billion Capital Income Builder.
TIAA-CREF, based in New York, manages money for teachers, academic researchers and medical professionals.
- Database Search
- Unpaid Debt A comprehensive overview of the role of the Lundin Consortium in the oil war. ECOS calls upon the Swedish, Austrian and Malaysian governments to investigate whether, as a matter of international law, Lundin, OMV and Petronas 'were complicit in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity by others during the period 1997-2003.’ In response, the Swedish Public Prosecutor for International crimes opened a criminal investigation into ‘links between Sweden and the reported crimes’.
- In Depth For more specific information about the Lundin court case please visit the Unpaid Debt dossier.
