nuclear or defense sectors.
The firms range from major world actors like Total of France and ABB of Switzerland down to obscure companies like Worley Parsons Ltd. of Australia and Aker Solutions of Norway.
Altogether, the 50 companies come from 20 countries. Six each are from Russia and India; five are from South Korea; and four each are from China and Italy. Those five countries are host to half of all the firms identified by Poizner.
Poizner—who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor of California in the June primary—compiled the list as part of his effort to discourage investment in Iran.
He wants all the insurance companies doing business in California to divest themselves of any stock in these 50 companies.
To encourage divestiture, he has used his authority as insurance commissioner to decree that as of this week (March 31) no investments in any of those 50 companies will be recognized as fulfilling any California financial requirements.
Poizner said of 1,300 insurers licensed to do business in California, about 340 hold investments in companies on the list totaling approximately $6 billion.
All the firms on the list are from outside the United States because U.S. law already bars all American firms from doing any business with Iran outside food, medical products and textiles.
Poizner said the list was compiled with the help of three consulting companies and by checking lists already compiled by public pension funds in New York, Florida and California that are also working to divest Iran-related assets.
Poizner’s list has been posted on the Internet and thus is likely to become something of a target list.
Since the list was posted in February, one of the firms—Siemens—has already announced that it is phasing out its involvement in Iran.