Asset manager Amundi and insurer Axa are accused of offering investments in Indian and Chinese companies that in recent months have sold “trucks, combat planes or remote-controlled firing stations” to the Burmese junta, according to an investigation by the newspaper Le Monde.
According to a survey conducted by the NGOs Justice for Myanmar and Info Burma on the one hand, and on the other hand information obtained by Le Monde based on data from the Dutch research group Profundo, Amundi, a subsidiary of Crdit Agricole, and Axa offer their clients investments in Indian and Chinese companies which have sold weapons and military equipment to the Burmese junta in recent months, writes the French daily.
As a reminder, the EU has established an embargo on arms and equipment that can be used for internal repression.
According to Le Monde, which cites the latest available data, dating from April and May, Amundi offered its clients shares in the Chinese company AviChina, which sold light combat aircraft to the junta, and the Indian Bharat Electronics Limited. , which provided the Burmese army with remote-controlled firing stations.
The asset manager also offered investments in the capital of Sinotruk, a Hong Kong-based heavy goods vehicle manufacturer that sold Burma trucks used to transport soldiers to suppress demonstrations, according to Le Monde.
To date, the open-ended funds managed by Amundi do not hold shares in AviChina Industry & Technology, Bharat Electronics Limited and Sinotruk, Amundi defended itself to AFP, without denying Profundo’s statements that the shares of these companies are present there through so-called index funds which replicate and come under passive management.
Crdit Agricole’s investments for the benefit of the junta, in a wide variety of sectors, amount to 4 billion dollars, according to the NGOs.
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The article in Le Monde also mentions the insurer Axa, with a lower level of exposure, via third parties, and concerning the Sinotruk company.
The group assured AFP that it has no exposure to truck maker Sinotruk through its general assets.
The insurance group reports a fund managed by AXA IM for third-party clients whose exposure to this company currently represents around 71,000 euros and another distributed locally to Chinese clients by AXA IM’s joint venture with SPDB. in China (in which AXA IM is a minority shareholder), whose exposure amounts to approximately 550,000 euros.
According to the UN, since the coup in Burma, entire villages have been razed and burned, more than 3,700 people have been killed and more than 23,700 arrested.