I dialog med Nordea

Claus Christensens svar.

13/5-2010

Tak for jeres henvendelse. Jeg fremsender herunder vores aktuelle beholdninger i selskaberne, samt vores umiddelbare kommentar, som naturligvis skal ses i sammenhæng med Nordeas politik for samfundsmæssigt ansvarlige investeringer. I har beskrevet hovedelementerne i vores politik i jeres dokument.

Vi er, som I formentlig er bekendt med, også blevet inviteret af jertil et debatmøde om sagen. Der er blevet flyttet noget rundt på arrangementet, men i det omfang vi har praktisk mulighed for det, deltager vi gerne i mødet og debatten.

Nordea har følgende beholdninger i de to selskaber:

Nordea Liv & Pension:

- Anglo American: DKK 10.322.568

- Anglo Platinium: DKK 0

Nordea Invest:

- Anglo Platinum: DKK 6.348.121

- Anglo American: DKK 43.066.367

Vi er bekendt med kritikken mod Anglo Platinum, der allerede blev rejst i 2008 i en NGO-rapport. Efter en dialog mellem selskabet og South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), der i øvrigt ikke fandt Anglo Platinum skyldig i krænkelser af menneskerettighederne, har Anglo Platinum erkendt, at det kunne forbedre sin interaktion med lokalsamfundene i Limpopo. Vi følger udviklingen tæt, og vi vil i led med Nordeas politik for samfundsmæssigt ansvarlige investeringer udøve vores aktive ejerskab, hvis udviklingen ikke fortsætter i den rigtige retning, og vi konstaterer overtrædelser af de internationale regler og normer. Alle nye oplysninger vil naturligvis blive en del af vores evaluering af virksomheden, og vi vil om nødvendigt også gennemføre besøg for at validere fremskridt.

Venlig hilsen

Claus Christensen

STOP JORDTYVEN!s svar.                                                                                          

14/5-2010

Kære Claus Christensen,
Tak for jeres hurtige svar.

Vi fastholder nødvendigheden af, at Nordea trækker sine investeringer ud af både Anglo Platinum og Anglo American, samt offentligører denne beslutning. Baggrunden for dette krav er, at andre virksomheders forsøg på at udøve aktivt ejerskab ikke har forbedret situationen i området. Volvo besøgte bl.a. virksomheden i 2008 efter offentliggørelsen af de omtalte rapporter, men til trods for dette besøg står lokalbefolkningen stadig over for fødevareusikkerhed som følge af minens ekspansion og manglende kompensation.

I forhold til rapporten fra SAHRC, nævner kommissionen specifikt følgende:


”From a documentary review and site visits the SAHRC is concerned that access to new agricultural land may have been undermined through a lack of community consent on the alternative land decision making process … The implication by the ?community is that many community members are being denied access to their primary method of subsistence.” (side 47)

Dette er blot ét af mange områder, som SAHRC-kommissionen retter opmærksomhed mod. Grunden til at de i deres rapport blot “udtrykker bekymring” og ikke fordømmer Anglo Platinums handlinger i mere klare vendinger, er fordi minedrift er et politisk betændt område i Sydafrika. Hvis SAHRC kom med en mere direkte kritik, ville det stille den sydafrikanske regering i et meget dårligt lys i forhold til respekt for menneskerettigheder.

SAHRC-rapporten fra 2008 fremlægger de dog en række anbefalinger, som Anglo Platinum opfordres til at efterleve, bl.a. at Anglo Platinum skal yde kompensation til alle, som har mistet land pga. ekspansionen, at Anglo Platinum skal stoppe med at bruge politiet til at foretage vilkårlige fængslinger og undertrykke befolkningens protester, og at Anglo Platinum skal stoppe med at skabe splittelse mellem lokale befolkningsgrupper.

Disse anbefalinger blev fremlagt i 2008, og efter vores besøg i april 2010 står det klart at situationen ikke er blevet bedre, trods påstande om det modsatte fra Anglo Platinum, fremført i egne rapporter.

Ved at trække sine investeringer ud af Anglo Platinum og Anglo American kan Nordea være med til at sætte de to selskaber under reelt pres i forhold til at leve op til deres forpligtelser. Samtidig kan Nordea sætte ord bag handling i forhold til egen SRI-politik.

Vi ser frem til fortsat dialog.

Svarene fra Sasja Beslik, Director of ESG analysis Nordea Investment Funds

(ESG: Environmental, Social, Governance)

26/5-2010

On behalf of Nordea I would like to respond to the facts and your opinions on Socially Responsible

Investments (SRI) at Nordea in your report on Anglo Platinum’s activities in the Limpopo Province.

First of all I would like to underline that we welcome a debate on Responsible Investments (RI). RI is an issue of growing global awareness and importance. Nordea signed the UNPRI in the autumn of 2007 and has since then worked with our processes in a step-by-step evolution and improvement, and the area will be developed continuously.

We strongly believe that transparency and dialogue are the best starting point, both when it comes to improving the behaviour of companies and in developing the processes and understanding of RI among customers, NGOs, companies and investors.

 RI capacity at Nordea

Your report addresses the need for building competence and capacity in the field of RI. Based on your research you unfortunately conclude that Nordea’s CSR secretariat only employs two people and thus needs more resources instead of letting Ethix handle all investigations.

The CSR department mentioned, consisting of two team members, coordinates CSR activities on

corporate level mostly focused on lending activities and also on internal awareness activities. Nordea’s Responsible Investments and Governance (RIG) team, which is what your report addresses, consists of five team members with long international experience in analysing companies from an Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) perspective. This team was established during 2009 and includes team members rated among the best ESG analysts in the Nordics by several independent sources. Ethix services are only used to screen our portfolios for companies that breach the norms and for companies operating in certain sectors restricted from ethically tilted portfolios. Engagement activities with selected companies, currently approximately 100, are conducted by our RIG team. Hermes Equity Ownership Services provides assistance to this team regarding engagements with companies that breach the norms.

 Active ownership

As you state in your report, Nordea believes in active ownership, and we most certainly have the conviction that engaging companies, verified for various breaches of international norms regarding human rights and the environment, is the toughest and most direct way of trying to change misconduct.

The most common and likely most fruitless, but rather symbolic, act is to exit investments in a particular company. Certainly, engaging companies that are not willing to change their misconduct will eventually end with an exit of investments, but the effort invested in the process of changing misconduct is worthwhile. Our engagement activities give results. Nordea has managed to change misconduct by two companies we have engaged over the last two years. West Farmers and CNOCC are two companies we managed to influence to change their practices, West Farmers regarding sourcing materials from West Sahara occupied territories and CNOOC to start addressing social and environmental issues associated with its business operation as well as publicly disclosing information about the goals and progress.

In contrast to the information in your report, each engagement case initiated from our side has a clear timeline, goals and a process description. Before engaging with the company we determine the feasibility of the engagement in order to clarify the chances of success. When engaging companies breaching international norms, we use Hermes Equity Ownership Services as well as internal resources, for example the RIG team with long international experience in engaging companies on environmental, social and governance issues. One of the key differences between our engagement process and that of many others is that since 2009 we have regularly conducted field visits and on-site audits, depending on the type of issues in question.

 Exiting an investment

You ask in your report how much it takes before Nordea will pull out of a company due to human rights violations?

If a company during the engagement process does not improve its management of a particular breach, communicates its progress or if it refuses attempts at engagement, we will exit our investments in the company.

Even in cases where breaches of international norms are not documented but company management systems indicate a lack of accuracy, we will engage with the company to clarify its capacity to manage certain environmental and social risks associated with its business operations. We conduct these types of engagement activities with approximately 100 companies both in a Nordic context and internationally.

During the course of 2010 we will evaluate the progress of several companies we have engaged with regarding breaches of international norms and decide if reasonable progress has been made. In cases where progress has not been achieved we will exit our investments.

 Negative lists

In your report you refer to the negative list of Ethix and a possible comparison to Nordea’s current list of 11 companies that have been excluded from our investments. As Ethix conducts screening activities for a number of investors, not all the companies identified by Ethix are necessarily present in our portfolios.

We currently engage about a dozen companies for verified breaches of international norms. In addition, we are engaging approximately 100 companies regarding the management of key ESG issues related to their business operations.

We also engage in a dialogue with various NGOs in order to understand their views and opinions

regarding particular issues and companies. Most recently we engaged with Greenpeace to exchange views and experiences related to oil-sand projects in Alberta, Canada.

I very much look forward to participating in the debate on RI arranged by you tonight, to elaborate further on Nordea’s views on this issue and to exchange views with the panel. As mentioned, we believe that transparency and dialogue are the prerequisites for the future development of responsible investments.

For the same reason I kindly ask you to publish this letter on your campaign site for your report on ms.dk.

Yours faithfully

Sasja Beslik

Director of ESG analysis

STOP JORDTYVEN!s svar til Sasja Beslik.             

7/6-2010

Thanks for a good debate on the 27th.

I am writing you to request some information on were you are with your engagement with Anglo Platinum? It seemed like you were already quite far on the 27th and we would very much like to see the plan for further engagement. Danske Bank has agreed to lay out their plan this week after a meeting with a partner and I hope you will be able to do the same so we can move things along.

We will continue our demand to divest, since we have not seen any evidence to contradict the evidence of failure of active ownership with Anglo Platinum. However, should an ambitious plan be laid out, by the parties involved, combined with immediate results on the ground we will of course reconsider. This decision will ultimately be taken with the affected communities in South Africa and our partner organisations there.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Sasja Besliks svar.

11/6-2010

Thanks again for an interesting debate and opportunity to meet you. Late reply from me since we have made decission to exit our investments from BP in our ethcial funds as weel as we have put the stock into brackets, PM's can not buy more BP. We are the only asset manager internationally that has done this.

Our visit to Anglo Platinum ha snow been scheduled for week 30 ( this may be changed for a week 33 depending on my travelling schedule)

We are currently reviewing all public documents available regarding following:

- Consultation of key stakeholders

- Process of consultation

- Information provided during consultation

- Comments collected and questions asked

In regarding to this block of work I've requested company to provide us with “Community Information Leaflet" document that was developed to inform residents about the resettlement issues.

For the other block of work we are reviewing following 

- Independent report done by Unit of Corporate Governance in Africa (Case Study Limpopo- Anglo platinum)

- Resettlement Plan

- Compensation Plan

Several of documents are not delivered yet and will be during the course of the week to come.

Urge is a very strong word in English ;-)

Regards

Sasja