CalPERS to bar some overseas investment

sacramento.bizjournals.com 3:14 PM PST Tuesday 

Sacramento-based CalPERS, the nation's largest public pension fund, ruled out stock investment in Malaysia, Thailand, India, Russia, Morocco, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Pakistan, Indonesia and Venezuela.

The fund, which has about $133 billion in assets, also cleared the way for future investment in emerging markets like South Korea, Poland, Israel, Czech Republic, Hungary, Taiwan, South Africa, Chile, Mexico, Jordan, Peru, Argentina, Turkey and Brazil.

CalPERS began in 2002 to consider civil liberties, press freedoms and political risk in making investments after board members argued that investing in more stable countries with more liberal practices would yield better long-term results. The countries that were dropped scored lower than the threshold imposed by CalPERS, which were based on studies by an outside consultant.