New Zealand's state pension fund to sell off stakes in gun makers
12/04/2019 11:12
SYDNEY, April 12 (Reuters) - New Zealand's state pension
fund will sell off investments of NZ$19 million ($13 million) in
makers of weapons outlawed by tough new firearms laws following
the country's worst peacetime mass shooting, it said on Friday.
Lawmakers voted almost unanimously this week to ban
military-style semi-automatic guns and assault rifles less than
a month after a lone gunman used them to kill 50 worshippers in
attacks on mosques in Christchurch. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N21S2B3
"Companies involved in the manufacture of civilian automatic
and semi-automatic firearms, magazines or parts prohibited under
New Zealand law have been excluded from the NZ$41 billion NZ
Super Fund," the fund said on its website.
The move was a response to the new law, it said, and
identified holdings in seven companies to be affected by its
decision, including American Outdoor Brands Corp AOBC.O ,
Sturm, Ruger & Co Inc RGR.N and NOF Corp 4403.T .
The others are Vista Outdoor Inc VSTO.N , OLIN Corp
OLN.N , Richemont and Daicel Corp 4202.T .
Others may be identified in future, added the fund, which
gave no timeframe for its divestments.
Makers of tobacco and some other munitions are already
excluded from its investment mandate.
Authorities have charged Australian Brenton Tarrant, 28, a
suspected white supremacist, with 50 counts of murder following
the Christchurch attacks.
($1=1.4839 New Zealand dollars)
(Reporting by Tom Westbrook; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
((tom.westbrook@thomsonreuters.com; +61466355340; Reuters
Messaging: tom.westbrook.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net;
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