Disinvestment
The term disinvestment (also divestment ; English divestment or English disinvestment ) describes in business administration in a company the release of capital through the sale of assets , i.e. the conversion of tangible or financial assets into liquid funds . The opposite is investment .
General
This type of capital procurement represents a form of internal financing : It is the procurement of previously invested funds, which are thus available again for investments or the settlement of liabilities or improvement of liquidity .
The English term divestment is also often used as a catchphrase for various campaigns to withdraw capital from companies or states that make their profit with criticized purposes. In connection with the withdrawal of foreign direct investments from sanctioned countries, one speaks of English divestiture . Divestment is part of ethical investment .
Possible reasons for a divestment
- Sale of parts of the company that are not part of the core business .
- Sale of parts of the company or investments to raise funds ( internal financing ).
- Sale of individual parts of the company in order to achieve higher proceeds than would be possible, for example, in the context of a total liquidation or a total sale .
- Sale of risky parts of the company or investments.
- Sale of unprofitable parts of the company or investments.
- Sale of individual parts of the company forced by supervisory authorities , for example for anti-trust reasons or because of state sanctions against a country.
- Sale or withdrawal of company shares or investments under pressure from shareholders or others, e.g. B. civil society or non-governmental organizations ("NGO").
- In order to comply with the Paris Climate Agreement ( two-degree target ), large quantities of fossil fuels must not be burned (keyword “Unburnable Carbon”). In this context, it can be assumed that there will inevitably be disinvestments (keyword carbon bubble ).
Campaigns
Divestment can take place or be required for ethical and political reasons; one often speaks of divestment . It is aimed at companies or states whose behavior or products are viewed as unethical. Financial assets that are invested in such companies or countries should be deducted; new investments in these companies or countries should not be made. Divestment is a form of ethical investment, mainly based on exclusion criteria . Divestment is similar to an economic or consumer boycott , in divestment it is the financing of an economic subject that is to be boycotted.
Divestment campaigns are campaigns that primarily encourage institutional investors but also private individuals to divest. The effect of the campaigns on the cost of raising capital in the case of debt financing , i. H. Lending rates or issue prices of newly issued shares and the market valuation of the companies under consideration are often not or hardly verifiable. Instead, the effect of disinvestment campaigns is based on the reputational risk of economic actors, rather on stigmatization and as a means of forming social will.
The divestment was used for the first time in the 1980s as part of political campaigns ( English divestment campaigns ), particularly in the United States of America . At that time an economic boycott was organized against the South African apartheid regime by asking public investors such as communities, churches or universities to withdraw all funds from South African investments.
Since then there have been various other disinvestment campaigns against states and companies, e. B.
- Companies that benefited from the occupation of Palestinian territories by the State of Israel ; (see Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions ).
- Military rule in Myanmar in the 1990s .
- From 2006 Sudan because of the Darfur conflict (some US states passed laws that forced resident pension funds to divest).
- Tobacco industry .
- Defense industry .
- Since around 2010 companies whose sales are mainly related to fossil energies (see divestment (fossil energies) ).
See also
- Financial embargo - state sanctions that restrict or prohibit financial transactions with the sanctioned economic entity
literature
- Sarah A. Soul, 1997: The Student Divestment Movement in the United States and Tactical Diffusion: The Shantytown Protest . Social Forces (1997) 75 (3): 855-882, doi : 10.1093 / sf / 75.3.855
- Judith A. White: Divestment . In: Robert W. Kolb (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Business Ethics and Society . tape 2 . SAGE Publications, 2008, pp. 610-612 .
Web links
- Deutschlandfunk.de , essay and discourse , November 22, 2015, Markus Metz, Georg Seeßlen: "Pull off the coal!"
Individual evidence
- ↑ Divestiture . In: William A. Darity Jr. (Ed.): International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences . 2nd Edition. tape 2 . Macmillan Reference USA, 2008, pp. 420-421 .
- ^ Judith A. White: Divestment . 2008.
- ↑ Ingo Arzt: How climate change is changing capitalism. A few years ago, climate protection and financial markets were as contradictory as Greenpeace and Shell. That is changing now. So much so that even the Deutsche Bundesbank is forced to act. www.taz.de, November 11, 2017, accessed on November 12, 2017 .
- ↑ Cedric Dawkins: Elevating the Role of Divestment in Socially Responsible Investing . In: Journal of Business Ethics . October 2016, doi : 10.1007 / s10551-016-3356-7 .
- ↑ Brian Burch: Boycotts and Divestment . In: Gary L. Anderson and Kathryn G. Herr (Eds.): Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice . SAGE Publications, 2007.
- ↑ Harvard Political Review , Eric Hendey, harvardpolitics.com: Does Divestment Work ? (Last accessed: November 13, 2016)
- ↑ wedivest.org ( Memento of the original from April 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Judith A. White: Divestment . 2008.
- ^ Judith A. White: Divestment . 2008.
- ^ Mark Holt: Liverpool City Council votes to disinvest in arms trade. In: labournet.net. October 21, 2007, accessed December 28, 2016 .
