There is deep, deep irony here.
The NY Common Retirement Fund is a member of CERES, a group of Public Employee Pension Funds that champion (in their communications anyway) alternative energy. They are very vocal in telling other people what to do.
A couple years ago the NYCRF made headlines when they announced they were going to commit $500mil. to green investing. The fund has $132 Bil. under management. If my slide rule is right that is less than 4/10ths of 1% of the money they've been entrusted with.
Now it turns out they had 17.5 million shares of BP. *
On the day of the explosion the stock closed at $60.48 valuing the stake at $1.06 Billion. Double their commitment to altenergy.
Even funnier, the fund's largest equity position is ExxonMobil, 18.12 million shares worth a cool $1,234,348,865 i.e. 2 1/2 times their "green" investments in one oil company.
From Reuters via Yahoo:
New York state's pension fund plans to sue BP Plc to recover losses from the drop in the company's stock price following the worst oil spill in U.S. history, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said on Wednesday.
New York's Common Retirement Fund has a long history of serving as the lead plaintiff in shareholder lawsuits. DiNapoli said the fund owned more than 19 million shares when the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in April.
DiNapoli, the sole trustee of the $132.6 billion state pension fund, has hired law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll to represent the fund.
"BP misled investors about its safety procedures and its ability to respond to events like the ongoing oil spill and we're going to hold it accountable," said the comptroller, a Democrat, who stands for election in November...MORE
*All figures as of the latest annual report for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2009. We have to wait until September for the finalized March 31, 2010 numbers. Here's the latest annual asset listing:
Retirement System’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR)
•2009 CAFR
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