By Christopher Condon
April 16 (Bloomberg) -- Fidelity Investments said shareholders voted down a proposal recommending that four of its mutual funds stop investing in companies contributing to genocide.
The proposal, which needed a majority to pass, received support from 22.3 percent to 25.4 percent of shareholders who cast ballots, according to company spokesman Vincent Loporchio.
Activists have pressured Boston-based Fidelity, the world's largest mutual-fund company, and other asset managers to sell stakes in companies such as PetroChina Co., the oil producer whose parent does business with the government of Sudan. About 200,000 people have been killed and 2 million made homeless by a civil war in Sudan's Darfur region.
Eric Cohen, chairman of Boston-based Investors Against Genocide, accused Fidelity management in a statement of ``using its control of proxy balloting to tilt the vote against the proposal.''
Loporchio said the voting was conducted according to proxy rules.
Fidelity's board had recommended that shareholders vote against the Darfur initiative, saying it could block investments allowed under U.S. law.
The genocide proposal, according to the proxy, would apply to ``companies that, in the judgment of the board, substantially contribute to genocide, patterns of extraordinary and egregious violations of human rights, or crimes against humanity.''
Submitted by shareholders, the proposal was nonbinding. Two other Fidelity funds rejected a similar proposal on March 19. Four other funds scheduled to vote today adjourned their meetings because they lacked a quorum of stockholders. Those 4 and 11 other funds will take up the proposal May 14.
To contact the reporter on this story: Christopher Condon in Boston at ccondon4@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: April 16, 2008 15:53 EDT