Investors drop Brazil meat giant JBS

Top investment house delists world biggest meat producer over lack of commitment to sustainability issues

The investment arm of northern Europe's largest financial services group has dropped JBS, the world's biggest meat processer, from its portfolio. The Brazilian company is now excluded from assets sold by Nordea Asset Management, which controls a 230bn (210bn) fund, according to Eric Pedersen, its head of responsible investments.

The decision was taken about a month ago, over the meat giant's links to farms involved in Amazon deforestation, its response to the Covid-19 outbreak, past corruption scandals, and frustrations over engagement with the company on such issues. The exclusion of JBS is quite dramatic for us because it is from all of our funds, not just the ones labelled ESG," Pedersen said.