Morgan Stanley switches annual meeting to London

Morgan Stanley, the leading US investment bank, is to hold its annual general meeting in London today for the first time but the event is set to draw fierce protests from environmental campaigners.

The bank said it had moved its AGM out of the US in recognition of its worldwide activities. Environmentalists suggested it was to avoid protests planned for the annual event in New York.

Campaigners, who are concerned about Morgan Stanley's financing activities in Asia, have simply shifted to the London meeting. The protesters allege the bank is a major funder of environmentally destructive projects in Asia, including the giant Three Gorges Dam in China.

A report on these activities will be published today and distributed at the AGM by protesters. Campaigners also plan to enter the meeting, after being granted proxy status by a US shareholder, and ask questions about these issues.

A spokesman for the bank said: "Morgan Stanley is a global company with significant employee presence in Europe. We are holding our AGM in London in recognition of the global nature of our business."

The bank has its global headquarters in New York, where 14,000 employees are based. The London office which will host the AGM is at Canary Wharf and houses 4,500 workers.

Three pressure groups have come together for the Morgan Stanley campaign, Friends of the Earth, Free Tibet Campaign and International Rivers Network.

The protest groups will tell investors that Morgan Stanley's continued involvement in the projects highlighted "not only poses a reputational risk, it also calls into question management's ability to effectively assess risks in emerging markets, posing a serious threat to shareholder value."

In particular, they have concerns about Morgan Stanley's involvement in the Three Gorges project, resource extraction in politically oppressed Tibet, and Asia Pulp & Paper, a logging company in Indonesia which is alleged to be guilty of illegal deforestation.

"Morgan Stanley is a key component to the financing of controversial projects that have huge environmental and social impacts, carried out without proper consultation with affected people," the campaigners said.

The bank's spokesman declined to state the level of its involvement in any of these projects or whether it had a policy on socially and environmentally responsible assessment of work.

The Three Gorges Dam will flood 2 million people out of their homes, without adequate compensation or resettlement, campaigners said. Morgan Stanley is said to be behind bond issues and the international financing of this scheme.