|
Corporate Social Responsibility
'Our Pick'
10.15.2007 - 10:35am ET
|
Source:
|
marcgunther.com
|
|
News Categories: |
| | |
Buffett, Darfur, Mutual Funds and Myanmar
By now, you’ve probably read that Berkshire Hathaway, the investment firm
led by Warren Buffett, has sold most if not all of its holdings in
PetroChina. PetroChina is the publicly listed unit of the China National
Petroleum Co., which has come under harsh criticism for doing business
with the repressive government of Sudan.
Heartened by Buffett’s action, Darfur activists are now shifting their
focus to other investment funds, including Fidelity, that continue to hold
PetroChina stock.
Meanwhile, oil companies are facing pressure from human rights activists
to pull out of Myanmar, where the regime has cracked down on Buddhist
monks and other dissidents.
All this is a reminder to western multinationals with operations in the
developing world that they face risks to their brands if they end up on
the wrong side of human rights abuses.
There’s no way to know what led Buffett to sell PetroChina. Berkshire
bought the stock in 2003, investing about $488 million; at the end of last
year, the stock was worth $3.3 billion. So he may simply have decided to
take profits.
But because Berkshire Hathaway was at one time PetroChina’s largest
shareholder (other than the government of China), the company came under
sustained pressure to sell by activists who said the Chinese oil
company’s payments to Sudan helped finance the genocide in Darfur.
The divestment campaign is now turning its attention to other firms that,
according to their public reports, hold stock in PetroChina. Investors
Against Genocide has a website
listing the firms, which including Franklin Templeton, JPMorgan Chase,
Credit Suisse, Capital Research and Fidelity.
Today, activists in more than a dozen cities will hold protests at the
offices of mutual fund firms that are linked to the Darfur genocide. They
are targeting the officies of Fidelity in Washington, Franklin Templeton
in San Francisco, JPMorgan Chase in New York and Capital Group in Los
Angeles, among others. You can learn more about the campaign at Divest
for Darfur as well as at the website of the Sudan Divestment Task
Force, which has done a superb job of organizing around the issue.
Click here to
continue...
|
Independent Research Reports
To search for independent research reports from Innovest Startegic Value Advisors about the social, environmental and governance performance of this company and its industry, click here |
 |
|
|
|
|
