Environmental groups warn banks against climate and human rights implications of underwriting Saudi Aramco offering
Ayşe Gürsöz, Tel: +1 (650) 391-6443 ayse@ran.org
Ayşe Gürsöz, Tel: +1 (650) 391-6443 ayse@ran.org
Saudi Aramco is quickly moving forward with plans to float up to three percent of the national oil company in an Initial Public Offering (IPO). Seven banks have been reported to be joint global coordinators of the offering: Bank of America, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley.
A coalition of environmental groups – Rainforest Action Network, BankTrack, Earthworks, Friends of the Earth U.S., Global Witness, Indigenous Environmental Network, Oil Change International, ShareAction, Sierra Club and 350.org – have written a letter to warn banks away from facilitating capital for the world’s largest corporate emitter of carbon dioxide. Also highlighted are the human rights concerns of banks’ raising billions of dollars for Saudi Arabia given the horrendous human rights record of the Saudi regime.
The full letter can be found here.
