By Simon Jessop, Karin Strohecker and Gwladys Fouche
LONDON -The number of investors seeking to ditch their Russian holdings continued to grow on Monday following the country’s attack on Ukraine and despite attempts by its central bank to staunch the flow.
The exodus of capital from Russia has accelerated since Ukraine was invaded last week, as the West scales up sanctions against the government of President Vladimir Putin in response to its ‘special operation’ in the country.
Latest to head to the exit was Norway’s largest pension fund KLP, which said it planned to sell around $56 million worth of Russian stocks, and the Church of England, which said it had asked its fund managers to sell out of Russian stocks last week.
Kiran Aziz, head of responsible investments at KLP, which manages around $80 billion in assets, said it had already sold out of Russian stocks and bonds listed in London and was doing the same in New York.
“For assets listed in Moscow, it is of course not possible to sell right now,” Aziz told Reuters, referring to a decision by the Russian central bank to freeze all trading on the Moscow stock exchange.
Further seizing up markets, Euroclear said on Monday it has closed its link to rival settlement house Clearstream Banking for settling trades in Russian securities in response to European Union financial sanctions.
The Church could well be one of the last to take advantage of open markets after it told its fund managers on Feb. 24 to sell direct holdings equivalent to around 0.16% of its total investments. It added it would also make no further investments.
Also pledging to buy no more Russian assets on Monday was Britain’s Universities Superannuation Scheme, the country’s largest private pension scheme with around $120 billion in assets.
“We have placed a moratorium on new long positions taken in all Russian assets which is over and above full compliance with UK government sanctions restricting trading in sovereign debt and other Russian assets,” a spokesperson said in emailed comments.
“Where we have existing investments, we will need to consider our position carefully in the light of trading restrictions,” the spokesperson added.
The decision by more asset owners to take a stand follows news over the weekend that Norway’s $1.3 trillion sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, planned to do the same, and as the New York City Comptroller said he weas reviewing assets for possible divestment.
($1 = 0.7459 pounds)
(Reporting by Simon Jessop; editing by Sujata Rao, Karin Strohecker, William Maclean)