Nottinghamshire pension fund to sell about £6m in Russian assets but councillor asks why move was not made sooner

Coun Eric Kerry, pension fund committee chairman, made a statement following the ‘unprovoked and aggressive attack by Putin’s regime in Ukraine’.

He said during the latest meeting investment managers have been reviewing the £6.6 billion pension fund and have found under 0.1 per cent of it – meaning less than about £6.6m – is invested in Russian assets.

The fund looks after the retirement pots of 145,000 members, including council workers, teachers and police officers.

It has now asked investment managers to sell all Russian assets and suspend further purchases in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

It comes after the fund’s independent adviser wrote on February 25 that ‘despite the troubling events of the last few days’, he did not advise any changes to the fund’s long-term strategy.

These comments were criticised by Coun Lee Waters, who said he found them ‘quite abhorrent’.

He said he was ‘shocked and dismayed’ the fund did not act sooner.

Coun Waters said: “The fund analyst had predicted for months that a war was imminent, so why did the fund not act sooner to disinvest?

“As of September, we had £10m directly invested in BP, which had to dump parts of its Russian business, and £30m in Shell.

“Both BP and Shell have said they are committed to pull out of Russia, but as their businesses are so intrinsically linked to Russia, it will take years.

“Therefore, if you stand with the people of Ukraine I ask you to sell these holdings.

“By investing in this fossil fuel, this pension fund has blood on its hands.”

Implications

Coun Kerry said: “We were proactive when this started in finding out what the implications and options were.

“The timing of what we did reflected the knowledge we had at the time.

“We made the statement at the right time. If others chose to do it differently, that’s their choice.”

He said the fund will “review our position as and when events take a substantive different turn and the isolation of the Russian economy is no longer deemed necessary by the international community”.

Coun Mike Pringle, member for Ollerton, said: “It’s difficult to not politicise our investments in Russia, compared to what is happening, but any investments we have in fossil fuels is something we realise we need to move away from.

“Any investment in fossil fuels is something we need to look at.

“I think we are doing it. Do I think we’re doing it fast enough? No, I don’t.”

William Bourne, independent adviser to the fund, said: “Fossil fuels are part of the future for the next 20 or 30 years at least.

“Pretending fossil fuels don’t exist or trying to isolate them from the world, I am afraid I disagree with Coun Waters on that point.

“It’s very hard for this committee to take action because we invest through funds and they are the ones who make decisions.

“I am not aware of any pension fund that actively sold Russian assets because they thought a war was coming.”

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