CalPERS Pressures 3 European Companies

SACRAMENTO — The California Public Employees’ Retirement System threatened Monday to sell its investments in three European companies if they didn’t sever relations with the government of Sudan, which human rights groups and some governments have accused of complicity in mass killings in the Darfur region.

The CalPERS board voted 9 to 2 to send the warning to Swiss technology group ABB, German industrial conglomerate Siemens and French telecommunications giant Alcatel.

In addition, two big oil companies in which CalPERS owns stock, Royal Dutch Shell and France’s Total, were put on notice that they would be scrutinized further, even though a preliminary CalPERS investigation found that their Sudanese subsidiaries do no business with the government of Africa’s geographically largest nation.

“Companies with business ties to the Sudanese government present a financial risk and a moral threat to their shareholders,” California Treasurer Phil Angelides said.

CalPERS owned shares worth $55.2 million in ABB, $45.3 million in Alcatel, $791 million in Shell, $233 million in Siemens and $555 million in Total, as of Sept. 8, according to a staff report submitted to the board of the pension fund.

CalPERS often uses its investment clout to pressure companies to follow the fund’s social, environmental and corporate governance policies.

In Wall Street trading Monday, Siemens rose $1.76 to $82.10; Alcatel gained 21 cents to $12.82; ABB rose a dime cents to $9.40; Royal Dutch Shell added 51 cents to $66.60 and Total climbed 80 cents to $128.45.