KLP has had its half-yearly review of what companies to invest in in accordance with the company’s ethical criteria. Two more companies are now being excluded, namely Alstom and Wesfarmers.

”These companies are being excluded for breaking KLP’s ethical rules and not rectifying reprehensible conditions, or for not in some other way having signalled their willingness to solve the problem”, says Mari Thjømøe, KLP’s CFO.

The French Alstom company is being excluded for having violated human rights under a hydro-power project in Sudan. A special envoy from the UN Human Rights Council urged Alstom, among others - Alstom being the project’s main supplier of electrical equipment - to cease operations due to reports of human rights being violated in connection with conditions being reprehensible and around 50,000 people being forcibly moved.

KLP is also excluding Wesfarmers, the fertilizer company, as a result of the company’s illegal phosphate imports from West Sahara. The area is occupied by Morocco and in 2002 the UN declared that all extraction of natural resources in West Sahara was illegal.

Halliburton in from the cold again
Halliburton, the US oil service company, has put behind it the corruption charges against it and is being reintroduced into the portfolio. It was Halliburton’s subsidiary, Kellog, Brown & Root (KBR), that was associated with systematic corruption and unethical business, thus having been excluded by KLP in 2005.

”We are including Halliburton in our portfolio again because, in 2007, the company has accepted its responsibility and taken into account its unethical business and reprehensible conditions. Moreover, Halliburton is strengthening its position in relation to preventing similar incidents from taking place again”, says Jeanett Bergan, adviser, responsible investments, at KLP Kapitalforvaltning (the asset management company).

KLP has also included Anvil Mining in the investment portfolio. The company was associated with participation in massacres of civilians in Congo. Anvil Mining has developed in a positive way since the incident in 2004 and has put considerable work into \"Voluntary Principles for Security and Human Rights\".

Facts
KLP has now excluded 41 companies from its investment portfolios.
Three companies were excluded because of corruption, six because of violations of human rights, four as a result of breaches of the employees’ international rights, and four as a result of serious environment sins. Moreover, 16 companies have been excluded because of arms production, and another ten companies because they produce tobacco.

For further details, please see the enclosed tables, www.klp.no, or contact:

Jeanett Bergan, Adviser, Responsible investments KLP Kapitalforvaltning
Tel. +47 92 03 85 89
+47 92 03 85 89

Mari Thjømøe, KLP’s CFO
Tel. +47 22 03 79 16
+47 22 03 79 16
+47 90 77 78 24