Article: CalPERS assails Sudan ties

CalPERS assails Sudan ties

By Gilbert Chan -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PST Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Trustees of the California Public Employees' Retirement System called for three multinational companies to cut business ties with the Sudanese government.

Citing the ethnic strife and atrocities in the embattled African nation, the board's Investment Committee turned up the pressure on ABB Ltd., Alcatel and Siemens AB. The move was approved 9-2, with Trustees Robert Carlson and Ron Alvarado dissenting.

"Companies with business ties to the Sudanese government present a financial risk and a moral threat to their shareholders," said state Treasurer and CalPERS Trustee Phil Angelides in a statement. CalPERS, the nation's largest public pension fund with $200 billion in assets, owns shares worth about $335 million in the companies.

Angelides and other state political leaders have urged CalPERS and the California State Teachers' Retirement System use their financial clout with public international companies to apply economic pressure on the Khartoum government, which is accused of carrying out mass killings and destroying hundreds of villages in the country's Darfur region.

This story is taken from Business at sacbee.com.