LONDON (Reuters) – French asset manager Carmignac said on Monday it would not buy Russian securities and would divest from existing assets, following a raft of other fund managers who have made similar announcements.
“We have decided not to purchase any Russian securities until further notice,” the 42 billion euro ($45.6 billion) asset manager said in a statement.
“We are committed to divesting from any remaining Russian securities in our portfolios, considering extra-financial aspects as well as market conditions, in order to preserve the interests of our clients, our primary objective.”
The firm’s emerging market fund Carmignac Portfolio EM Debt had the world’s longest Russia debt position in January at over 43%, Morningstar data shows.
Several fund managers such as BlackRock and abrdn have said they were halting purchases of Russian securities or reducing existing holdings, although efforts by investors to cut positions have been complicated, by a Russian ban on local brokers from selling securities held by foreigners.
More than $3 billion in unlisted funds exposed to Russia were suspended last week, while several exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were also frozen.
($1 = 0.9206 euros)
(Reporting by Carolyn Cohn; Editing by Saikat Chatterjee and Edmund Blair)
