World’s largest pension fund dumps company over plantation violations

The world’s largest pension fund has revealed that it sold its shares in the Bolloré group, a powerful French conglomerate. This was due to unresolved concerns about “serious human rights violations” at a plantation company which Bolloré partly owned.

A report from the Norwegian Bank Investment Management (NBIM) made the decision public on 26 February. The report states that after years of dialogue with Bolloré SE and Compagnie de l’Odet SE on “their management of human rights risks, sexual violence, harassment and labor rights abuses” at the plantations of the Luxembourg-based company Socfin, in which the Bolloré group holds a “significant share”, NBIM decided to exclude them from its investment portfolio.

Affected communities have long denounced the violations and abuses. The Socfin group dates back to 1909. It controls 370,000 hectares for the production of palm oil and rubber in ten countries of Africa and Asia.

Plantations on stolen land

In many of these countries, Socfin acquired the lands without community consultation or consent. As a result, the communities feel their lands were robbed from them. The plantations often surround villages and pollute their water sources, such that villagers cannot grow their own food crops.

When villagers gather fallen palm nuts or speak out about their conditions, they regularly face harassment. For women villagers and girls, sexual violence and even rape by plantation labourers or security forces is a common occurrence.

In 2024, after years of complaints from communities and civil society, Socfin hired the Swiss-based Earthworm Foundation to investigate these issues. The results were appalling: 59% of the complaints were said to be founded, to one degree or another, and 85% of these were judged to be the responsibility of the company.

Norway’s move follows a similar decision by Switzerland’s largest pension fund, BVK. The Swiss spent three years discussing these issues with the Bolloré group, which argued that it held no responsibility for what happens at the Socfin plantations. This was despite Bolloré being a major shareholder and sitting on the board of directors of several Socfin holdings and plantation companies.

Félicité Ngo Bissou of the Association des Femmes Riveraines de Socapalm Edéa in Cameroon said:

It’s about time that investors take action against Socfin and Bolloré. For too long, the Bolloré group has claimed it’s not responsible for the abuses we face around the Socfin plantations and as a result, the abuses have continued. This cannot go on.

Rizal Assalam of the Transnational Palm Oil Labour Solidarity, in Indonesia, agreed:

For us, Norway’s decision, like that of the Swiss, means that someone is listening to the communities and the workers, even if it’s not Bolloré.

For rights groups in Europe, Norway’s move puts EU decision-making to shame. Indra Van Gisbergen of Fern made the point:

The European Commission invited Socfin last week to be a key partner and speak at the EU-Liberia Business forum in Brussels. Yet Liberian communities are to this day denouncing Socfin’s lack of action on their long standing complaints!

NBIM runs Norway’s pension fund, which currently has $2.1tn in assets, making it the largest in the world. At the outset of 2025, it held $91m worth of shares in Bolloré SE. It had sold these by the end of the year.

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