17 Nov 2022

Fair Finance International recently published a report called “No questions asked” on financial institutions’ investments in construction and hospitality companies with exposure to Qatar and Qatar sovereign bonds.

Nordea welcomes the report. We believe it’s important that these issues are addressed. Nordea is mentioned in the report mainly because we are invested in two companies: Hilton, a global hotel company, and Vinci, a French construction company. However, Nordea received one of the highest scores in the assessment of the financial institutions included in the report, mainly because of the engagements that Nordea has with these companies.

“We have engaged with Vinci about the conditions for migrant workers in Qatar, and we have engaged with Hilton about their human rights due diligence in high-risk countries. We are still engaging with them on some of our engagement goals,” says Eric Pedersen, head of responsible investments at Nordea.

Vinci’s and Hilton’s exposure to Qatar is limited, which means that Nordea’s indirect exposure also is limited. For example, Hilton is active in 122 countries and has around 7,000 properties, whereof seven in Qatar, so Nordea’s exposure to Hilton also includes many other projects. The same is true for Vinci. They operate in many countries, including Qatar.

“If a company that Nordea has invested in is found breaching human rights guidelines (OECD guidelines or UN Global Compact ), the breach is reviewed by Nordea’s Responsible Investment Committee. If Nordea finds that the company has not satisfactorily settled or clarified the issue, we can quarantine or exclude it. Our aim is to review all critical reports and all our investments must adhere to our human rights framework,” says Eric Pedersen.