Responsible Investor

The US state of New Hampshire has reportedly agreed to divest its state pension funds from the worst-offending companies doing business in Sudan, according to the Sudan Divestment Task Force.
Sarasin, the Swiss private bank is reportedly hiring senior SRI professionals for a marketing push into the Nordic countries, according to Thomson Investment Management News. Andreas Knoerzer and Aris Prepoudis, Sarasin’s heads of sustainability and institutional clients, said the bank was also aiming to open a representative office in Stockholm by 2010. Sarasin manages approximately €5bn in sustainable investments, both pooled and segregated.
Friends of the Earth International claims that European banks including Barclays, Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, Axa, HSBC, UBS and Credit Suisse are increasing human rights abuses and adding to the problems of global food shortages by investing billions of euros in the production and trade of sugar cane, soybeans and palm oil in Latin American.
The NGO says the funding of agrofuels is leading to large scale rainforest deforestation in Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Colombia and has urged the banks to stop lending to companies in the sector.
Hermes, the UK fund manager, has asked the Dutch courts for an injunction to have preference shares at Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASM International (ASMI) withdrawn. Hermes, which is understood to own about 15% of ASMI, is seeking to dismiss the company’s chief executive Chuck del Prado and five members of ASMI’s supervisory board over performance concerns at a forthcoming AGM. Hermes

said management at ASMI had borrowed money to exercise an option for the company to issue preference shares as protection against an unwanted takeover and thwart Hermes’ plans to put renewal of the board to a shareholder vote. The fund manager said: “Preference shares were not approved to dilute the ability of shareholders to influence the company through voting at AGM’s.”
Baring Asset Management is reportedly launching a global agriculture fund. Professional Pensions magazine reports that the fund managed by Jonathan Blake is aiming for long-term capital growth from investments in companies with earnings derived from activities relating to food and biofuel production.
European finance ministers have attacked excessive executive remuneration and said that so-called ‘golden parachute’ arrangements paid to departing executives in the event of corporate mergers and acquisitions represents a “potential conflict of interests” and should be fully taxed. The 15 finance ministers said the link between executive pay and company performance was often ‘weak’ if not ‘inexistant’. Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg’s finance minister and president of the Eurogroup of finance ministers said: “The out-of-control excessive pay of company directors that we see now is scandalous.” He said each EU member state should put forward a plan of action to fight what he called a “social plague”.
Seung-Soo Han, Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea, is to address the plenary of the joint session held in Seoul on June 17 and 18th by the United Nations’ three leading sustainability organizations: The Principles

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