One of the Netherlands' largest pension funds, ABP, has announced its intention to sell its remaining investments in Russian companies.

The pension fund joins an expanding list of institutional investors excluding Russian assets from their portfolios, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This includes Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global, Sweden’s premium pension system, and Denmark’s AkademikerPension, among others.

ABP’s board has taken the decision to sell investments in Russian companies and not to purchase new investments. As of February 24, 2022, ABP has approximately €520m (less than 0.1 per cent of the invested capital) in investments in Russia. In recent years, ABP has already considerably reduced its investments in Russia in several steps. ABP does not invest in Russian government bonds. In connection with a binding EU arms embargo, Russia was already on its exclusion list.

More recently, ABP has also sold some of its investments in Russian oil and gas companies in connection with ABP's October decision to sell its investments in fossil fuel producers. ABP has also recently phased out other Russian investments.

However, the pension fund said the sale of the remaining investments may take some time as market conditions are complex at the moment. The sales will be executed by its asset manager APG as soon as it is justified.

“In view of the uncertainty in the financial markets as a result of the Russian invasion, ABP is closely monitoring the consequences of this for our investments. In addition, we closely monitor the consequences of the global sanctions package that Russia has imposed on itself,” ABP stated, whilst also expressing its condolences to the people of Ukraine.

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