Major Survey Finds No Investor Interest in Divesting from Oil and Gas
NEW YORK, April 21, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Notwithstanding activists' attempts to force investors to drop fossil-fuel related equities, new research commissioned by the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) and released today at IPAA's annual Oil & Gas Investment Symposium in New York finds that the "divestment movement" has had virtually no impact on the way the vast majority of serious investors and analysts view and/or value firms in the energy sector, and particularly those in the oil and gas space.
Among the survey's key findings, greater than nine out of 10 respondents identified the energy sector as being "inextricably linked" to other major sectors of both the global and U.S. economies, with nearly 80 percent agreeing that the inclusion of fossil-fuel related investments is an "essential element" of having a "balanced, diversified portfolio." Additionally, nearly nine out of 10 respondents indicated that increased advocacy by divestment proponents has neither impacted their view on the issue, nor increased the likelihood that fossil-fuel related securities will be divested from portfolios they manage and/or control in the future.
"With all the talk recently about divestment campaigns, we thought it might be interesting to ask the actual targets of these campaigns what they thought of them," said Jeff Eshelman, senior vice president for operations and public affairs at IPAA. "I think we assumed going in that most serious investors wouldn't be following them, wouldn't be interested in them, and certainly aren't being influenced by them, but even we were surprised to see how lopsided the findings were. Basically, this whole thing is almost entirely a media campaign, not an effort to engage real investors with real arguments."
Conducted by FTI Consulting, Inc., the survey captures the perspectives of 324 professionals representing a diverse segment of the institutional investment community, including traditional investment managers and hedge funds, pension funds and endowment managers, as well as investment banks. The survey results were released today as part of IPAA's OGIS New York event, widely considered among the most important annual conferences for publicly traded independent E&P and service and supply companies.
For more information, please visit DivestmentFacts.com.
SOURCE Independent Petroleum Association of America
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