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British insurer and asset manager Royal London is planning to divest its Russian assets ‘as soon as possible’, Bloomberg reported citing the company’s CEO Barry O’Dwyer.
The firm is said to have no active investment in Russia, with lower than 0.1% of its total assets in the country, through stock index funds.
O’Dwyer was quoted as saying by the news agency: “We can’t trade these things anyway, but as soon as we can, we obviously intend to divest.”
The development comes as major asset manager seeks to cut their Russia position in Russia after the country was hit by a slew of stringent sanction by the US and its allies over its military attack on Ukraine.
Last week, Denmark-based asset manager Nordea Asset Management (NAM) said that it is planning to sell down its investments in Russia.
NAM, which has been in the process of reducing its exposure to Russia for some time, plans to shed exit exposure in equities, government bonds, alternatives, and corporate debt.
In Australia, the government urged pension funds in the country to review their investment portfolios and offload holding in Russian assets.
Russian assets are said to make up a small portion of the country’s $2.56trn (A$3.5trn) retirement fund asset pool.
Norway is also planning to freeze Russian assets in its $1.3trn sovereign wealth fund and offload them in due course.
To prevent the mass exodus of investors, Russia has temporarily barred foreign investors from offloading Russian assets.
