Advisers to Norwegian state want to inquire into Lundin
Lundin Petroleum, with chairman Ian Lundin, got into hot water at Thursday’s AGM. Advisers to the Norwegian state recommended voting for Folksam’s proposal.
Anyone thinking that Folksam would only receive minimal support at the Lundin Petroleum AGM was wrong. More people than expected wanted to know what Lundin’s business in Sudan and Ethiopia really involved.
All of 21.4% of the shareholders at the AGM voted for Folksam’s proposal for an independent investigation into Lundin Petroleum’s operations in Sudan.
Lundin owns around 31% of Lundin Petroleum. The state-owned Första AP-fonden and Fjärde AP-fonden went along with Lundin’s line and did not want to see an independent enquiry.
The question that remains is who really voted in favour.
It is clear that ISS, advisers to the Norwegian state and other large foreign shareholders, recommended supporting Folksam.
“The proposal would presumably increase the value for the shareholders. Although ISS considers that the company is no longer active in north-east Africa, it does consider that there is sufficient merit in the proposal to allow an investigation into the company’s general policy on human rights,” says the recommendation.
Whether the oil fund chose to follow the advice, Bunni Norian, press secretary of Norges Bank Investment Management, would not comment.
Lundin Petroleum’s CEO, Ashley Heppenstall, says he does not know which investors voted for an enquiry.
I do not know how the Norwegian state voted. Nor do I know what the advisers recommended,” said CEO Ashley Heppenstall to di.se after the emotional meeting.
Lundin Petroleum no longer has any operations in Sudan, but the company has correspondingly more in Norway. The find in the Johan Sverdrup field is very important to the company, and if the Norwegian state begins to doubt Lundin Petroleum it would be disastrous for the company.
In two other cases ISS recommended its clients to vote against the company line: Point 15 and Point 17.
Point 15 was about the election of the board. ISS considers that Lundin Petroleum’s board is not independent enough, and intends to put forward a proposal to the next AGM about increasing the number of independent members.
- Database Search
- Unpaid Debt A comprehensive overview of the role of the Lundin Consortium in the oil war. ECOS calls upon the Swedish, Austrian and Malaysian governments to investigate whether, as a matter of international law, Lundin, OMV and Petronas 'were complicit in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity by others during the period 1997-2003.’ In response, the Swedish Public Prosecutor for International crimes opened a criminal investigation into ‘links between Sweden and the reported crimes’.
- In Depth For more specific information about the Lundin court case please visit the Unpaid Debt dossier.
