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Fidelity Investments, the second largest holder of shares in Petrochina, holds over $1 billion in the two largest oil companies operating in Sudan. Take action on Fidelity now!

On May 15, Fidelity won accolades for divesting 91 percent of its New York Stock Exchange holdings in PetroChina and 99 percent of its holdings in Sinopec, two Chinese oil companies that are fueling the genocide in Darfur.

This was in no small part due to the Investors Against Genocide campaign, which has led efforts to pressure Fidelity, and Drumbeat for Darfur members who have joined these efforts.

However, these seemingly positive developments hide important facts about Fidelity’s holdings in these companies. In fact, Fidelity owns the majority of its PetroChina and Sinopec stock on the Hong Kong stock exchange, where it still owns $834 million in PetroChina and an estimated $200 million in Sinopec.

Darfur activists have engaged with Fidelity since 2006, beginning with an intense letter-writing effort aimed at Fidelity’s senior management, trustees, board members, and fund managers. But with little response and no action from Fidelity, activists are now ramping up the pressure by calling, writing letters, sending e-mails, and divesting their own holdings in Fidelity until Fidelity divests all its holdings in PetroChina and Sinopec.


Investors Against Genocide asks:
“Is there no threshold of moral depravity beyond which Fidelity would not invest? ... Would Fidelity have invested in the booming machete market before the genocide in Rwanda, or in Zyklon-B product sales before the Holocaust? ... The genocide in Darfur is real, it is happening today, it is clear, publicly identified, authoritatively documented and declared, and Fidelity is a major investor in the companies helping to fund the genocide in Darfur.”

Fidelity responds:
“Fidelity portfolio managers make their investment decisions based on business and financial considerations, and take into account other issues only if they materially impact these considerations or conflict with applicable legal standards.” –Letter from Fidelity, October 5, 2006