Voting on genocide-free investing at Vanguard mutual funds
Despite Vanguard's active opposition and misleading statement of opposition, 21 funds recorded votes ranging from 7% to 17% in favor of genocide-free investing.
- Click here to see all voting results and pending proposals on genocide-free investing.
- Click here for IAG's press release on the voting at Vanguard.
"Favorable votes today are unnaturally low, because Vanguard's active opposition and misleading statement of opposition tilted the vote against the proposal."
"If Vanguard wanted a good test of shareholder support, it would have taken a neutral stance, rather than seeking to obscure the interests of shareholders, especially since, as we all know, it is common practice for ordinary investors to ignore and discard their proxy materials."
In Vanguard's proxy materials (page 2 and 30-32), the company asked its shareholders to vote against the proposal because it calls for procedures that "duplicate" existing practices and is "substantially identical" to existing procedures of the Vanguard funds. However, Vanguard has not released the text of a Board policy, beyond the statement of opposition that details how Vanguard will avoid holdings that are tied to genocide or crimes against humanity, and Vanguard's quarterly holdings reports showed that it continues to hold and purchase additional shares of PetroChina and other oil companies tied to the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. - Click here for Eric Cohen's statement from the July 2 shareholder meeting.
"Many shareholders, whose votes will be recorded today, read Vanguard's statement and believed that the issue raised in the proposal no longer applied. Those shareholders have been misled by Vanguard."
"A careful reading of Vanguard's statement of opposition reveals substantial differences between the supposedly duplicate procedures. Vanguard says it implemented a “formal procedure for regular reporting to the Trustees” on problem companies, but it does not say anything about the procedure the Trustees will apply once they have the report. It specifies no criteria that the Trustees will use for judging companies that are reported to them. In contrast, the shareholder proposal explicitly sets the standard to be companies that "substantially contribute‟ to genocide or crimes against humanity."
"There is no requirement in Vanguard‟s statement for the Trustees to review or act after receiving the report submitted to them. The shareholder proposal requires proactive attention to prevent acquiring problem companies and requires corrective action if they are already in the portfolio. Vanguard has made no commitment to taking any such action. Rather, Vanguard‟s Plain Talk About Proxy Proposal 3 web page says that „the trustees have determined that no companies have warranted divestment.‟ Even worse, Vanguard‟s quarterly report of its holdings, after filing its proxy materials, showed that Vanguard had increased its holdings in PetroChina and the other worst offenders complicit in Sudan: Petronas, ONGC and Sinopec." - Click here for news coverage of the voting.
Support genocide-free investing at Vanguard
- Click here to send an email to Vanguard (and copy us), asking Vanguard to implement a transparent genocide free
investment policy and use it now to prevent holdings in companies helping to fund genocide.
- Click here to learn how to submit a shareholder proposal to mutual funds where you invest, to ensure they are genocide-free. We've made it easy for you to submit a shareholder proposal on genocide-free investing.
- Take Action. See this page for more that you can do to help.
- Click here if the automated email didn't work or if you want to contact the company by phone or mail.
Vanguard's holdings
- Vanguard's holdings of the top problem companies totaled $303 million as of 1/31/2009.
- Vanguard increased its holdings in PetroChina between the late 2008 and 1/31/09:
from 177 million shares worth $134 million to 189 million shares worth $140 million. - Vanguard's PetroChina shares were held by six mutual funds:
- Emerging Markets Stock Index Fund
- Energy Fund
- FTSE All-World ex-US Index Fund
- Global Equity Fund
- Total International Stock Index Fund
- Total World Stock Index Fund
| Vanguard shares | 9/30/2008 | 10/31/2008 | 12/31/2008 | 1/31/2009 |
| Emerging Markets Stock Index | ||||
| China Petroleum | 118,586,580 | 123,943,060 | ||
| CNPC | 17,594,330 | 17,944,330 | ||
| Oil and Natural Gas Corp | 1,982,723 | 2,071,529 | ||
| PetroChina | 149,630,899 | 155,673,909 | ||
| Petronas Dagangan Bhd | 1,856,200 | 1,909,000 | ||
| Petronas Gas Bhd | 3,573,028 | 3,684,728 | ||
| Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical | 16,747,668 | 17,371,596 | ||
| FTSE All-World ex-US Index | ||||
| China Petroleum | 3,702,000 | 5,876,000 | ||
| CNPC | 380,000 | 860,000 | ||
| Oil and Natural Gas Corp | 51,738 | 103,985 | ||
| PetroChina | 4,742,000 | 7,406,000 | ||
| Petronas Dagangan Bhd | 96,800 | 96,800 | ||
| Petronas Gas Bhd | 129,100 | 221,000 | ||
| Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical | 184,000 | 828,000 | ||
| Global Equity Fund | ||||
| China Petroleum | 20,116,000 | 35,682,000 | ||
| Oil and Natural Gas Corp | 158,292 | |||
| PetroChina | 2,760,000 | |||
| Total International Stock Index | ||||
| China Petroleum | 15,854,000 | 17,472,000 | ||
| CNPC | 2,230,000 | 2,690,000 | ||
| Oil and Natural Gas Corp | 258,023 | 289,514 | ||
| PetroChina | 19,812,000 | 22,148,000 | ||
| Petronas Dagangan Bhd | 233,200 | 233,200 | ||
| Petronas Gas Bhd | 451,400 | 506,500 | ||
| Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical | 2,242,000 | 2,242,000 | ||
| Total World Stock Index | ||||
| China Petroleum | 126,000 | 268,000 | ||
| CNPC | 20,000 | |||
| Oil and Natural Gas Corp | 1,550 | 4,910 | ||
| PetroChina | 180,000 | 350,000 | ||
| Petronas Dagangan Bhd | 1,300 | 1,300 | ||
| Petronas Gas Bhd | 4,500 | 10,100 | ||
| Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical | 18,000 | |||
| Energy | ||||
| China Petroleum | 74,000 | |||
| Oil and Natural Gas Corp | 3,610,661 | 3,674,174 | ||
| PetroChina | 744,000 | 744,000 | ||
| Petronas Dagangan Bhd | 635,800 |