Dutch pension funds invest billions in Russian companies: report

Dutch pension funds have at least 2.5 billion euros invested in Russian companies and government bonds, NU.nl reports based on its own research. The ten largest pension funds in the Netherlands have an extensive portfolio of shares in Russian companies like Gazprom, Lukoil, and Rosneft, and banks Sberbank, Credit Bank of Moscow, and VTB Bank. All these companies are affected by European and American sanctions implemented after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Civil servants' pension fund ABP has about 1 billion euros in Russian investments, 0.2 percent of its total investments. Last year, the fund decided to stop investing in oil and gas, which resulted in it selling many of its Russian investments. "We still have some investments in fossil fuels, but they have already been significantly reduced and are being further reduced," a spokesperson told NU.nl. "And if the EU imposes sanctions that affect our investments, we will, of course, follow them."

PFZW has 1.2 billion euros in Russian investments, 0.4 percent of its total. This includes government bonds with a value of around 700 million euros. A spokesperson told the newspaper that the fund is following developments in Ukraine. "The PFZW board will consider how to deal with this," said a spokesperson.

Pensionfonds Detailhandel has relatively the most Russian investments at 270 million euros or over 0.7 percent of its total investments. Most of these investments (208 million euros) are in government bonds. The pension fund's board will decide what to do with the Russian investments on Thursday, a spokesperson said.

PMT's Russian investments amount to 132 million euros or 0.13 percent of its total investments. BpfBouw has 58 million euros (0.07 percent), and PME has 23 million euros (0.04 percent). PfVervoer would not give NU.nl exact figures, but an overview at the end of 2020 showed that the fund had many different investments in Russian stocks and government bonds. A spokesperson said that there are "no major differences" with the earlier situation a year later.

On Monday, left-wing opposition parties called on the Cabinet to tackle Russian financial interests that run through Dutch businesses.