(JTA) — The Los Angeles public pension fund is divesting from companies doing business with Iran and Sudan.
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System announced last week that it had a plan to sell all its stock in companies operating in Iran and Sudan in order to fully comply with state divestment laws passed in 2006 and 2007.
The retirement system will sell about $160 million in stock in eight companies, according to The Los Angeles Times. The fund at one time owned more than $2 billion worth of shares in 47 companies that did business in Iran and Sudan.
“A lot of people worked very hard to get to this point,” Michael Sweet, vice chairman of the San Francisco-based Jewish Community Relations Council and chairman of the Jewish Public Affairs Committee, which lobbied for divestment, told J the Jewish news weekly of Northern California. “I’m glad we were able to get this result. I’m sorry it took so long.”
