Royal London and Phoenix Group review Russian investments as firms scramble to divest
Royal London and Phoenix are among the latest pensions giants to announce they are reviewing their Russian investments as firms scramble to sever ties with Russia following tightened sanctions this week.
Royal London, which manages around £159bn in assets, told City PM it was assessing its exposure to Russia across its investment.
“We are currently looking at the extent of Russian exposure across our portfolios – in terms of direct exposure, but also Russian companies listed in other markets, companies with significant revenues derived from Russia, and companies with Russian cross-holdings,” a spokesperson told City PM
Royal London has no direct Russian-listed exposure in its active funds and a small amount of direct exposure in its Emerging Markets ESG Equity tracker, the spokeperson said, but its equity ‘tilted’ funds have minimal exposure to some Russian firms listed in London.
The plunge in value of Russian stocks has seen the value of these investments wiped to a fraction of what they were, however.
“After falls seen in late February, we estimate these holdings total around £80m which is less than 0.1% of our total assets under management,” the spokesperson added.
Meanwhile Phoenix Group, which has around 13 million customers and has around £300bn assets under administration, said it was working with partners to review the extent of its Russian exposure.
“The investment exposure to Russia for Phoenix customers across asset classes is very limited,” a Phoenix spokesperson said. “We are in active dialogue with our asset manager partners to manage this responsibly for our customers and clients.”
The commitments came as campaigners ramped up pressure on pension providers to scrap their Russian holdings.
Pensions campaign Make My Money Matter, chaired by Love Actually director Richard Curtis, called on firms to accelerate their efforts yesterday.
“We believe this is morally and financially unsustainable in the current climate, and goes against the prevailing mood of the UK public,” Tony Burdon, Make My Money Matter chief executive said.
Firms across the UK have scrambled to exit Russian investments, with BP cutting its 19.75 stake in oil giant Rosneft on Sunday which is expected to deliver a £25bn hit.
Shell has also cut ties with gas giant Gazprom and pulled out of the NordStream 2 pipeline.