Exclusion – the last resort
If AP1’s attempts to engage in dialogue with a company fail to result in the problems being resolved within a reasonable time, normally four years, the company is excluded. This means that AP1 sells its holding and excludes the company from future investments.
In most cases a decision to exclude a company is made alongside other investors, primarily through the AP Funds’ Council on Ethics. The First – Fourth AP Funds have jointly agreed on common guidelines on which assets should not be invested in.
AP1’s exclusion list for listed shares and fixed-income securities contains around 20 or so companies whose securities the Fund’s asset managers may not invest in. Companies have been gradually added to the list since 2001. In some cases the problems have ceased and the companies have been removed from the exclusion list.
Current exclusion list (December 1, 2023)
Beyond these exclusions, Första AP-fonden have decided that it will no longer invest in three industries:
- Nuclear weapons. We do not consider the current modernisations and upgrades to existing nuclear weapons to comply with the aim of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which is for the world to be free of nuclear weapons in the long term.
- Tobacco. We do not consider investments in tobacco production to be line with the spirit of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which aims to dramatically reduce tobacco consumption and the harmful effects of smoking tobacco.
- Coal and oil sands. In our opinion producing these two types of energy, which have by far the worst climate footprints, makes it difficult to achieve the climate goals set out in the Paris Agreement.