HARVARD MANAGEMENT COMPANY - Coming under pressure to drop its shares in PetroChina

Crikey. Who would guess that Harvard has more than $3 billion in the stock market? As of June 30, 2004, Harvard Management Company holds shares in over a thousand corporations, from Abercrombie & Fitch to Zebra Technologies.

Outside activists have called on Harvard University to shed its stake in PetroChina, says The Harvard Crimson Online. Excerpt:

"Several faculty members said they would be more than willing to join an effort aimed at convincing Harvard to drop its shares in PetroChina, the oil stock linked to the Sudanese government.

With more than $3 billion in the stock market, the University’s holdings in PetroChina likely represent less than 0.02 percent of the entire endowment.

Activists hope that a move by Harvard to sell its shares of PetroChina could jump-start a broad divestment effort.

Harvard’s stake in PetroChina is “a highly symbolic investment,” Reeves* said. He said the University would “send a chill up the spine of all institutional shareholders of PetroChina” if the endowment fund dropped its stake in the company.

“This divestment campaign is going to explode off the blocks,” Reeves said."
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*Professor Eric Reeves

Eric Reeves is an English Professor at Smith College, Mass., and a recognised expert on Sudan and Darfur. He has provided testimony to Congressional Committees, been widely published in the US and International Press, and frequently provides expert analysis for Non-Governmental Organisations addressing the crisis in Sudan. For a full biography/bibliograhpy of his work on Sudan and Darfur, click here.