TIAA-CREF to Push Companies to End Darfur Violence (Update1)
2009-03-26 17:47:30.614 GMT
(Adds TIAA-CREF executive's comment in fourth paragraph.)
By Sree Vidya Bhaktavatsalam

March 26 (Bloomberg) -- TIAA-CREF, the nonprofit firm that manages $363 billion in retirement accounts, said it will push companies that it invests in to end human-rights violations in Sudan's Darfur region.

TIAA-CREF will exit investments in companies that do business in Sudan if they don't take "meaningful steps to respect human rights" by the end of the year, the New York- based company said in a statement today.

TIAA-CREF, which manages money for teachers and academic researchers, said it would target five companies, including PetroChina Co., the Beijing-based oil producer whose corporate parent does business with the Sudanese government, and Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Co., based in Shanghai.

"We have been focused on companies operating in Sudan for several years," Hye-Won Choi, the head of corporate governance at TIAA-CREF, said in an interview. "This represents an escalation of our engagement strategy."

Investors Against Genocide, a Boston-based human-rights group, has been pressuring mutual-fund companies to adopt socially responsible investment practices and shun companies that do business with Sudan.

On March 10, Vanguard Group, the largest U.S. manager of stock and bond funds, introduced criteria to determine whether companies meet human rights standards.

Shareholders of 21 funds at Fidelity Investments, the biggest manager of mutual funds, last year voted against proposals to restrict investments in companies doing business in Sudan after the Boston-based company opposed
the initiatives.

More than 300,000 people have died and 3 million people made homeless in the conflict in Darfur since 2003, according to estimates from the United Nations. The Sudanese government says that about 10,000 people have died.

The U.S. government has accused Sudan's government of genocide in its Darfur region.

-- Editors: Matthew Keenan, Rob Williams