Norway SWF Puts Hyundai Engineering & Construction on Observation List over Gross Corruption
Posted on 07/02/2021
According to the press release, “The Executive Board has decided to place the company Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co Ltd under observation due to unacceptable risk that the company contributes to or is responsible for gross corruption, ref. the conduct-based criteria in section 3 (1) (e) of the Guidelines for the Observation and Exclusion of Companies from the Government Pension Fund Global. The decision is based on a recommendation from the Council on Ethics of 28 April 2021. Based on this recommendation Norges Bank has decided to place the company under observation for a period of four years and have asked the Council on Ethics to monitor the company’s development.
The Executive Board has also decided to revoke the exclusion of Precious Shipping PCL. The company has been excluded since 2018 due to unacceptable risk that the company contributes to gross violations of human rights and severe environmental damage through its disposing of decommissioned vessels by sending them to be broken up for scrap on the beaches of Bangladesh and Pakistan. According to the recommendation from the Council on Ethics of 28 April 2021, the company has not disposed of decommissioned vessels in this way since 2016. Therefore, there are no longer grounds to exclude Precious Shipping PCL.
Norges Bank’s Executive Board has not independently assessed all aspects in the recommendations, but finds it adequately substantiated that the criteria have been fulfilled under the guidelines.
As part of Norges Bank’s work on the product-based coal criterion we are monitoring company events and which companies enter the market. Purchases and sales of ownership stakes and subsidiaries may to a large extent determine whether a company is affected by the criterion or not. As a result of such monitoring the Executive Board, after a recommendation from Norges Bank Investment Management, has decided to revoke the exclusions of Empire District Electric Company and Anglo American PLC. In addition, the Executive Board has decided to end observation of the companies EDP – Energias de Portugal S.A., Endesa S.A., Portland General Electric Co (PGE) and Enel SpA.”
LINK: https://www.nbim.no/en/the-fund/news-list/2021/decisions-on-observation-and-revoking-of-exclusion-and-observation/
Keyword: Norway Government Pension Fund Global.
