3rd Dec 07 - Alstom, the French energy and rail infrastructure group, is the latest company to be hit by an institutional investor boycott over business links in Sudan. KLP, Norwegian life and pensions company, is excluding Alstom from its index portfolio for alleged violations of human rights at a Sudanese hydro-power dam project.

Dutch pension fund giant PGGM may divest from Chinese oil firm Petrochina over its state-owned parent company’s Sudan operations, following public pressure over Sudan-linked investments.

A spokesman confirmed that the fund has been engaging with Petrochina officials since August over environmental and human rights issues linked to its activities in Sudan, where conflict in Darfur continues unabated.

Shares in PetroChina Company Limited, China's largest oil and gas producer, opened Monday at 48.6 yuan on their first day of trade in the Shanghai Stock Exchange, up 191 percent from their IPO price of 16.7 yuan. The price made PetroChina the world's largest listed company by market capitalization and raised 66.8 billion yuan (US$8.9 billion).

On Monday 29th October the Society for Threatened Peoples held a press conference with Berne Declaration, Genocide Intervention Network, Darfur Relief and Documentation Centre in Zurich, to demand that UBS and other leading Swiss financial institutions reconsider their investments in problematic companies operating in Sudan. Central to this call for action is the intention of UBS to underwrite PetroChina’s IPO (initial public offering) on the Shanghai stock exchange on the 5th November.