Norway fund divests from companies tied to weapon production

Oslo-based KLP, which manages more than 300 billion kroner ($35.4 billion), said it made the decision after reviewing companies that may violate its guidelines on weapons.

Copenhagen:Norway's largest pension fund said Thursday that it has divested from 14 companies involved in producing nuclear missiles and other weapons.

Oslo-based KLP, which manages more than 300 billion kroner ($35.4 billion), said it made the decision after reviewing companies that may violate its guidelines on weapons.

“This will primarily mean companies that produce certain types of weapons which, by their nature, violate fundamental humanitarian principles,” the fund said in a statement.

As of this month, KLP won't do business with companies including Britain's Rolls Royce Holdings PLC, Massachusetts-based Raytheon Technologies Corp. and France's Thales.

Earlier this year, KLP divested from 16 companies that operated in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

They appeared on a UN list of 112 companies that it said were complicit in violating the human rights of Palestinians by operating in the West Bank.

KLP said Thursday that Rolls Royce produces components for a number of vessels capable of launching nuclear weapons.

Its ethical guidelines said “production of such delivery platforms constitutes grounds for exclusion.”

The fund said Raytheon Technologies Corp. develops missiles that can carry nuclear warheads and called it the world's largest producer of guided missiles.

It said Raytheon had previously been excluded because it produces components for nuclear weapons and cluster munitions but was added back last year.

Thales develops and produces components for nuclear missiles and produces delivery platforms exclusively intended for such weapons, KLP said.

The exclusions mean that KLP has sold shares worth just over 1 billion kroner ($117 million) and debt securities in the form of bonds worth around 200 million kroner (23.5 billions).

(AP)