Dutch pension giant ABP divests Japan’s TEPCO over Fukushima disaster

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ABP, the Dutch civil service pension fund with assets of €292bn, has divested its €18m stake in Japanese nuclear power firm TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company), making it the latest investor to exit after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.

ABP has taken a step also taken by investors such as Norway’s KLP and the New Zealand Superannuation fund in deciding to get out of TEPCO over safety concerns.
The giant fund said TEPCO did not respond to repeated requests to discuss public safety and environmental concerns. It sold its stake in the fourth quarter of 2013 for an undisclosed amount.
ABP says TEPCO violated its safety standards both during and after the Fukushima episode. TEPCO is being excluded for breaching the United Nations Global Compact, which ABP uses to guide responsible investment.
In December KLP, the mutually owned Norwegian insurance group, excluded TEPCO, given that risks of further discharges of radioactive material from the plant mean the investments “represent a potential for complicity in severe environmental damage”.Earlier, in October 2012, NZ Super excluded TEPCO due to its “long history of breaches of environmental and safety standards prior to and including the Fukushima nuclear plant crisis”.
The decision means ABP now excludes 15 companies as of the start of this month.

ABP exclusions:
Cluster munitions:
Aeroteh (Romania)
Alliant Techsystems (US)
Aryt Industries (Israel)
Ashot Ashkelon (Israel)
China Aerospace International (China)
China Spacesat (China)
Hanwha Corp. (S. Korea)
Norinco International (China)
Poongsan Corp. (S.Korea)
Poongsan Holdings (S.Korea)
Singapore Technologies (Singapore)
Textron (US)

Breaching UN Global Compact:
PetroChina (China)
TEPCO (Japan)
Walmart (US)