The civil service pension fund ABP has stopped investing in four companies that manufacture land mines but firms that make cluster bombs remain in the fund’s portfolio. Next week ABP will publish a list of the 500 or so companies in which it invests.

In an interview with Friday’s Volkskrant, ABP’s Roderick Munsters said the decision to end investment in companies that make land mines follows public outcry on the issue after the tv programme Zembla highlighted the situation last month. Both ABP and the pension fund PGGM invested in firms that made bombs and landmines, Zembla said.
Munsters: ‘We recently pulled out our investment in Textron, General Dynamics, Alliant and Singapore Technologies Engineering.’ ABP has invested tens of millions of euros in these companies.
‘There is an international treaty against landmines signed by the Netherlands. There is no treaty against cluster bombs – however objectionable they may be,’ said Munsters.
ABP is the Netherlands’ biggest pension funds with an investment portfolio of €200bn.