Dutch healthcare scheme PFZW has sold all its listed investments in Israel and a number of other Middle Eastern countries last spring, the fund announced in its quarterly investment update on Thursday.
“We remain very concerned about developments in the Middle East and in particular in and around Israel,” the €255bn pension fund said.
Consequently, the fund has sold equity investments in some 30 Israeli companies. These were worth €141m, according to an overview on the fund’s website. According to a spokesperson for the pension fund, PFZW retains some €140m in private market investments in the country.
PFZW did not have any investments in Israeli bonds, nor in Lebanon and Iran, two countries that are in conflict with Israel.
PFZW stressed that the Israeli investments were sold “after weighing risk versus return and to protect the pension capital of our members”.
Last summer, trade union federation FNV called on pension funds to stop investing in companies that contribute to Israeli settlement policies in the West Bank.
At the time, that call seemed particularly aimed at PFZW, which until recently owned some €20m in shares of five Israeli banks that provide mortgages to Jewish settlers in settlements illegal under international law.
It now appears, however, that PFZW had already sold these investments at the time. The pension fund updates its investment overview on its website only once a year.
Piet Rietman, responsible for pensions on the FNV board, said in a brief response that he was happy with PFZW’s divestment from Israel.
“I hope more pension funds will follow PFZW’s example,” Rietman said (see box).
ABP retains Israeli investments
Civil service scheme ABP, the largest Dutch pension fund with €533bn in assets under management, does not appear to have sold any investments in Israel and the rest of the Middle East for the time being.
As of 30 June, it invested just under €200m in Israel, according to a statement on its website. It also holds €610,000 worth of Lebanese government bonds. In the rest of the Middle East, the pension fund has another €2bn in investments.
A spokesperson for ABP declined to comment on whether any changes were made to its investments after 30 June.
Of the other five largest Dutch pension funds, construction sector scheme Bpf Bouw invests some €37.5m in Israeli stocks and a slightly higher amount in the rest of the Middle East. Metal industry funds PME and PMT do not invest in the region.
PFZW, however, did not just sell its investments in Israel. Moreover, “in view of increased tensions and the growing threat of conflict expansion in the region”, it also disposed of its investments in three other countries in the Middle East.
In total, the healthcare pension fund sold its investments in 166 listed companies, according to a spokesperson, who declined to comment further on “amounts of money or names of countries involved”.
Saudi Arabia
However, a glance at the pension fund’s website reveals that the other investments sold were in companies located in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), worth a total of €279m. That brings the total amount of investments sold to €420m.
PFZW did, however, not sell all its investments in the Middle East. The healthcare fund is continuing to invest in Oman, Kuwait and Qatar. The continuation of investments in Qatar is particularly notable as the political leaders of Palestinian terrorist outfit Hamas live in Qatar and the country is considered the organisation’s main financier. Qatar also hosts television station Al-Jazeera, with which Israel has a strained relationship.
This article was first published on Pensioen Pro, IPE’s Dutch sister publication. It was translated and adapted for IPE by Tjibbe Hoekstra
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