News On Divestment
| By A.J. - Nov 10th, 2007 at 9:49 am EST |
| Also listed in: Idaho Darfur Coalition |
Here's the major news since our September email:
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathawayhas completely divested its massive holding in PetroChina. Berkshire sold 2.3 billion shares of theworst of the companies funding the genocide in Darfur. Buffett denies his actions had anything to dowith public pressure or genocide, but his complete divestment of PetroChina cutsthe connection between Berkshire Hathaway and the genocide in Darfur. The sell-off by one of the world's mostrespected investors is also a clear demonstration that ethical responsibility and fiduciary responsibility are not mutuallyexclusive. Since Berkshire no longer holds Petrochina, we have dropped itfrom our list of problem investment companies.
UBS (which owns the former PaineWebber) was added to our list of target companies. UBS not only acquired more than 1 billionshares of Petrochina, but also acted as the underwriter for the recent $8.94billion Petrochina public offering in Shanghai. Nobel laureates Elie Wiesel, Jody Williams andBetty Williams, along with Mia Farrow, Ruth Messinger, Justice RichardGoldstone, and Mukesh Kapila, called on UBS to aggressively engage withPetroChina. UBS ignored their request.
The Congressional Human Rights Caucus has scheduled a hearing ongenocide-free investing for December 11, 2007. The hearing will shed light on the problem of so many ordinary investorsbeing inadvertently connected to the genocide in Darfurby virtue of the large investments financial institutions make in companieslike PetroChina. We will keep you postedas more information becomes available.
Franklin Templeton. Demonstrationsand advertising in the San Francisco Bay Area have increased visibility to theproblem investments by Franklin Templeton, now the mutual fund company with thelargest holdings of PetroChina. You canview the Save Darfur Coalition ads by clicking here.
Here's what you can do to help:
Submit a shareholder resolution. Ourshareholder resolution drive is gaining traction. We've submitted nearly 75 resolutionsto 61 mutual funds across multiple companies. To put this in context, according to a recent article in IR magazine,there were a total of 322 environmental and social resolutions submitted to allcompanies for all of 2006. We'reenthused by our progress but want to do much more. We need your help. If you own shares in any of our targetedproblem investment firms, please review the information on our shareholder proposalprogram and contact us for further information on how you can help.
Send a complaint to UBS, Franklin Templeton,and other problem investment companies at InvestorsAgainstGenocide.org.
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathawayhas completely divested its massive holding in PetroChina. Berkshire sold 2.3 billion shares of theworst of the companies funding the genocide in Darfur. Buffett denies his actions had anything to dowith public pressure or genocide, but his complete divestment of PetroChina cutsthe connection between Berkshire Hathaway and the genocide in Darfur. The sell-off by one of the world's mostrespected investors is also a clear demonstration that ethical responsibility and fiduciary responsibility are not mutuallyexclusive. Since Berkshire no longer holds Petrochina, we have dropped itfrom our list of problem investment companies.
UBS (which owns the former PaineWebber) was added to our list of target companies. UBS not only acquired more than 1 billionshares of Petrochina, but also acted as the underwriter for the recent $8.94billion Petrochina public offering in Shanghai. Nobel laureates Elie Wiesel, Jody Williams andBetty Williams, along with Mia Farrow, Ruth Messinger, Justice RichardGoldstone, and Mukesh Kapila, called on UBS to aggressively engage withPetroChina. UBS ignored their request.
The Congressional Human Rights Caucus has scheduled a hearing ongenocide-free investing for December 11, 2007. The hearing will shed light on the problem of so many ordinary investorsbeing inadvertently connected to the genocide in Darfurby virtue of the large investments financial institutions make in companieslike PetroChina. We will keep you postedas more information becomes available.
Franklin Templeton. Demonstrationsand advertising in the San Francisco Bay Area have increased visibility to theproblem investments by Franklin Templeton, now the mutual fund company with thelargest holdings of PetroChina. You canview the Save Darfur Coalition ads by clicking here.
Here's what you can do to help:
Submit a shareholder resolution. Ourshareholder resolution drive is gaining traction. We've submitted nearly 75 resolutionsto 61 mutual funds across multiple companies. To put this in context, according to a recent article in IR magazine,there were a total of 322 environmental and social resolutions submitted to allcompanies for all of 2006. We'reenthused by our progress but want to do much more. We need your help. If you own shares in any of our targetedproblem investment firms, please review the information on our shareholder proposalprogram and contact us for further information on how you can help.
Send a complaint to UBS, Franklin Templeton,and other problem investment companies at InvestorsAgainstGenocide.org.
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