T. Rowe Price

T. Rowe Price was the first major mutual fund company to divest its holdings in foreign oil companies which help to fund the government of Sudan’s deadly campaign of violence against millions of its citizens. By January 2008, T. Rowe Price had sold 93% of their holdings in Petrochina and Sinopec. By April 2008, T. Rowe Price had sold all those holdings. In July 2007, prior to their sell-off, T. Rowe Price held about equal amounts of PetroChina and Sinopec (China Petroleum) totaling over $200 million.

T. Rowe Price included a discussion of divesting from Sudan in its public Policy Statement on Corporate Responsibility. That statement noted that T. Rowe Price initiated a “formal implementation of our policy to refrain from investing in certain securities that, in our estimation, pose high risk due to their ties to the Sudanese government and its connection to human rights abuses.”

Ongoing, we expect T. Rowe Price to follow their policy and continue to avoid investments tied to genocide and crimes against humanity.