 | HSBC, Credit Suisse Make A Mockery of Their Environmental Policy Major news media in Hong Kong reported that two of the world’s largest European banks, Credit Suisse and HSBC are to be arranging a USD 250 million share placement on the Hong Kong market in early March 2007 on behalf of the Samling Group, one of Malaysia’s largest forestry companies. The Samling Group has faced almost constant attack from pressure groups in Malaysia and internationally for the last thirty years over its allegedly destructive logging practices and corrupt business methods. The Group has its origins in northeast Sarawak where it been responsible for the logging of most of the primary forest in the region. It has since moved on to logging of primary forests in Cambodia, Guyana and through subsidiaries, in Papua New Guinea. Only a small portion of its forestry activities involve managed plantation forests, through a recently acquired operation in New Zealand. The involvement of these two banks in helping Samling to raise funds appears to be in direct conflict of their respective pledges on supporting sustainable forestry. |
english / japanese
