Credit Suisse’s HAGL holdings drawing fire
Credit Suisse, a financial services firm based in Switzerland, has been accused of aiding land grabbing in Cambodia by becoming a major shareholder in Vietnamese rubber giant Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) Group. In a statement released today, Global Witness (GW), an NGO based in England, claims that Credit Suisse became a “major shareholder” in HAGL shortly after GW released a report in May outlining alleged human rights abuses at its rubber plantation projects in Ratanakkiri province. “Credit Suisse became the largest institutional shareholder in [HAGL] … just two weeks after Global Witness exposed a range of environmental and human rights abuses in the company’s plantations in Cambodia and Laos,” the statement says. “Such action is in direct contravention of Credit Suisse’s commitments to human rights.” But a spokesman for Credit Suisse said its links to HAGL predated GW’s report. “Credit Suisse’s holding is for the purpose of hedging transactions it has entered in with its clients,” the spokesman wrote in an email. “Credit Suisse’s bond holding was first acquired in 2011, around 2 years before Global Witness made public its views on the company.” …
Shane Worrell
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/credit-suisse%E2%80%99s-hagl-holdings-drawing-fire
