Divestment

Adam Sterling wants individual investors to know that they are a powerful force -- and they can use that power to help stop genocide halfway across the world in the Sudanese region of Darfur. If American investors pull their money from companies that fund the Sudanese government, Sterling believes that government will be forced to curtail atrocities by its forces and allied militias in their fight against Darfur rebels.

The University of California's Board of Regents voted unanimously Thursday to pull out of investments in nine companies with ties to the Sudanese government, responding to a student activist campaign that had urged divestment for more than a year. "This is a great day for the university," said Adam Rosenthal, a student regent, during the board's afternoon session at UCLA. The vote sends a message to the U.S.

The parent of Lucky and Alpha Beta supermarkets gave up its costly legal battle to merge the two big chains and agreed Wednesday to sell most of its Alpha Beta stores in Southern California. Under a deal reached with California Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp, American Stores consented to divest 152 of its Alpha Beta stores and nine of its Lucky Stores within five years.

Wild Oats Markets Inc., the nation's second-largest natural-foods retailer, appears to be looking for a buyer, analysts say, after a dramatic overhaul of the chain has taken longer and proved more costly than expected. The Boulder, Colo.-based company in May began transforming its locations from natural food stores to healthy gourmet supermarkets to better compete with rival Whole Foods, whose stores generate almost 50% more sales per square foot.

Certified Grocers of California, a Commerce-based cooperative that supplies independent supermarket chains, said Tuesday it has found buyers for 26 of the 32 divested stores purchased from Albertson's following its merger with American Stores Co. The sale of the stores, which are located from San Diego County to Santa Barbara, will give a number of independent operators--all supplied by Certified--a foothold in new markets. It will also give one ethnic supermarket chain, Carson-based K.V.

As a former accountant and stockbroker, Father Paul Spellman knows money talks. So when he found out last month that his retirement funds could be contributing to bloodshed in Sudan, he decided to send a message. His target: Fidelity Investments, which manages the retirement plan for the 350 priests in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and is one of the leading U.S. shareholders in PetroChina Co., part of a company involved in one of Sudan's largest oil projects.

University of California regents on Thursday stopped short of a decision to pull UC money immediately out of investments in Sudan but instructed their fund managers to express the university's concern about firms that have "significant business relationships" in the war-torn African nation. The regents promised to revisit the issue in March, when they are expected to hear a detailed plan for divestment by a newly appointed task force that will include regents, faculty members and students.

Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. decisively rejected a proposal Saturday that would have required the company to sell its $3.3-billion stake in PetroChina Co., a subsidiary of a Chinese government firm that is the largest player in Sudan's oil industry. Berkshire Chairman Warren E. Buffett, who owns about one-third of his company's shares, advised against the proposal, which received less than 2% of votes cast here at Berkshire's annual meeting.

Kaiser Permanente, the nation's largest health maintenance organization, over the past six months has been ridding itself of a potentially controversial investment of $5 million in bonds sold by tobacco giant Philip Morris Companies Inc., a Kaiser official said Wednesday. Divestment of the bonds, which will be complete today, was "purely for financial considerations," Kaiser spokeswoman Beverly Hayon said.

Altria Group Inc. triggered one of the busiest days of trading in its shares in a year simply by announcing that it planned to disclose a timeline for the divestment of its majority stake in Kraft Foods Inc. This week, investors expect to learn details of the plan that created that late October burst of Wall Street activity. Analysts say it could call for breaking the food and tobacco company into as many as three parts.