Antinuclear

Superannuation Fund excludes nuclear investments

Super Fund sells nuclear investments   Stuff.co.nz, LAURA WALTERS 10 June 13, The New Zealand Superannuation Fund has excluded a group of companies from its $22 billion investment portfolio because of their work with nuclear weapons.

Publicly listed companies Babcock & Wilcox, Fluor Corporation, Huntington Ingalls Industries, Jacobs Engineering Group, Serco Group and URS Corporation, have been excluded under the fund’s Responsible Investment Policy.

Private company Bechtel Group, which the fund does not have holdings in, will also be excluded.

Lockheed Martin, the publicly-listed weapons maker, was previously excluded on the same grounds.

Nuclear warhead modification, retrofit and maintenance activities at nuclear bases had increased as part of recent programmes to extend the life of nuclear stockpiles in the United States and Britain, the fund said.

The fund’s responsible investment manager Anne-Maree O’Connor said the nuclear base operators were now involved in the modification and upgrade of nuclear explosive devices, which warranted exclusion.

The fund’s holdings in the excluded companies totalled $2.2 million at the end of March and have since been sold……. http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/8777606/Super-Fund-sells-nuclear-investments

June 9, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized