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Article

4 Jun 2007

Author:
Ruth Sullivan, Financial Times

Investment dilemma for Darfur [Sudan]

The Sudan divestment campaign mounted by activists to try to stop the conflict in Sudan is continuing to build momentum in the US…"The view today among a substantial proportion of companies and investment funds is that investing in Sudan in certain sectors, unless these operations change, is just not sustainable", says Hamish Falconer, executive director of Sudan Divestment UK, a partner of the Sudan Divestment Task Force which co-ordinates the Sudan divestment movement in the US…But shareholders at the recent annual general meeting of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway rejected a shareholder's demand for a divestment of the stake in PetroChina…UK-based F&C Asset Management is in the midst of reviewing its engagement strategy. "Our initial approach was to engage with companies rather than divest. But engagement did not help the people of Darfur and neither has disinvestment," said Karina Litvack, head of corporate governance and sustainable investment. The view in the investment community in the UK is largely that it is more sensible to engage than to disinvest. Investors are perhaps concerned about a wider range of special issues, such as how climate change affects business and corporate governance…[also refers to Fidelity Investments, Bharat Heavy Electrical, Sudan Telecom, Tatneft, Rolls-Royce, ABB, Siemens, Caterpillar]