CalSTRS to Divest Sudan-Linked Holdings

SACRAMENTO — The California State Teachers’ Retirement System will sell its holdings in five foreign energy companies that do business in Sudan to protest human rights abuses in the African nation’s Darfur region.

On a 9-0 vote Thursday, the board of CalSTRS, the nation’s second-largest public pension fund, directed its staff to plan for the divestment of the approximately $14 million worth of stock the fund currently holds in the companies. The holdings could be sold as early as June.

The companies -- China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. and Petrochina Co. of China; Tatneft of Russia; and Petronas Dagangan and Petronas Gas of Malaysia -- are all involved in oil and gas production.

State Treasurer Phil Angelides, who made the motion to divest, said the vote was “a wake-up call that American investment funds should not support a regime that has perpetrated systematic attacks against its own citizens.”

The decision mirrors a March 16 unanimous vote by the University of California Board of Regents to sell assets from nine companies operating in Sudan.

The $200-billion California Public Employees’ Retirement System is talking to the five companies in its portfolio that run subsidiaries in Sudan, which is torn by civil strife. The fund’s board expects to hear an update in June about the companies’ dealings with the Sudanese government.

The Sudanese government said it welcomed investment by foreign companies as a way to bring peace and reconstruction to the country.