Alberta’s public-investment manager says it has started divesting all of its small measure of Russian holdings in response to the invasion of Ukraine and the ensuing humanitarian crisis.
“Our equities team has succeeded in divesting some of our holdings in Russian securities in difficult markets,” AIMCo chief executive Evan Siddall tweeted on Tuesday. “They are now below $99 million, down significantly since yesterday, and are a small fraction of our clients’ portfolios.” Mr. Kenney has taken a hard line on Russia since last week, when he called for global sanctions on Russia’s oil and gas industry and for Ottawa to be “relentless” in freezing the Canadian assets of allies of Russian PresidentWhen asked about whether he knows of Russian investments in Canada’s oil and gas industry, the Premier replied that he doesn’t have “a comprehensive readout of what Russian interests may directly or indirectly be involved in the Canadian energy sector.
Other Western powers, far more reliant on Russian imports and worried about a sharp spike in already high fuel costs, have so far been reluctant to take the same step. Mr. Németh said he believes AIMCo is amongst the first provincial pension fund managers to divest of Russian holdings, and to issue a statement saying as much. But he noted that the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québecit recently sold hundreds of millions of dollars in stock of seven Russian companies.