Total’s Top Financier Urged to Sever Ties Due to Russia Exposure

Alastair Marsh
Wed, March 2, 2022


(Bloomberg) -- Credit Agricole SA, which provides more financial support to TotalEnergies SE than any other institution, has become the target of an activist campaign urging it to sever ties with the French oil major due to its continued operations in Russia.Reclaim Finance, a Paris-based nonprofit focused on sustainable investing, wrote to the chief executive officers of Credit Agricole and its asset management unit, Amundi SA, to demand that they stop providing capital to Total and all other fossil-fuel companies still active in Russia. Amundi, which oversees more than $2 trillion, is Total’s biggest shareholder after BlackRock Inc., while Credit Agricole is its biggest lender.

Total’s stance has left it increasingly isolated as rivals such as BP Plc, Shell Plc, Equinor ASA and Exxon Mobil Corp. all turn their backs on Russia in response to President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. It’s part of a mass exodus that’s rapidly turning Russia into a political and economic pariah amid international condemnation of Putin’s war.

“If TotalEnergies refuses to burn ties with Putin's oil and gas industry, then Credit Agricole must burn ties with TotalEnergies,” Lucie Pinson director at Reclaim Finance, said in Wednesday’s letter . She also condemned the French bank’s continued role as one of the main financiers for Russian state-controlled energy giant Gazprom PJSC.In a letter addressed to Credit Agricole CEO Philippe Brassac and Amundi CEO Valérie Baudson, the nonprofit called on Credit Agricole and its subsidiaries to cease financing not only Gazprom, but all non-Russian fossil-fuel companies active in the country “until these groups have withdrawn from their operations.” Credit Agricole has paused its financing of new business related to Russia, including for projects and movements of commodities, people familiar with the matter said Tuesday. “In the context of the current crisis, any isolated initiative can only be risky and could prove unfortunate,” said a spokesperson for Credit Agricole. The bank will observe sanctions and the firm’s corporate and investment banking division now “deals only by exception with Russian counterparties and only in response to the needs for goods and services essential to Europe, as long as these remain of course authorized by the public authorities.” A spokesperson for Total didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.The list of those cutting ties or reviewing their operations is growing by the hour as foreign governments ratchet up sanctions against Russia. The role of fossil fuels in bankrolling the Russian war machine has exposed Western oil majors still doing business in the country to intense criticism. On Wednesday, Exxon CEO Darren Woods pointed to the “ needless destruction” caused by the war in Ukraine as he mapped out plans to end a decades-long relationship with Russia.