Dr. Bronwyn King, Founder and CEO at Tobacco Free Portfolios, and Maxime Carmignac, Managing Director Carmignac Gestion Luxembourg – UK Branch, explain what the Tobacco-Free Finance Pledge is, what supporting this initiative means, and why investors should favour divestment for this sector.
Alecta Announced Tobacco-Free Position: USD 90B
As a long-term investor, Alecta said its investments need to be focused on companies that are well-managed and have a business model with a long sustainability date.
UK’s Largest Private Pension Fund to Exit Tobacco
The Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), which oversees more than 68 billion pounds (USD 84 billion) of assets, will begin selling its holdings in these industries within two years and will exclude any further investment, according to a statement on Monday from USS’s main investment manager and adviser.
Return Impact of Sustainability Decisions
AP4 follows up the return impact of sustainability decisions in the portfolio. This follow-up illustrates how the companies that AP4 has decided to not invest in have performed in relation to a broad index…. A positive return contribution in the chart shows that the effect of excluding certain companies has made a positive contribution to the portfolio’s return compared with a broad index and vice versa.
SEB Move to Tobacco-Free
…no investments are made in companies or company groups that produce or distribute tobacco products. The goal is to completely exclude companies that produce tobacco. Thus, the maximum turnover for a company is 0%.
NEST
Mark Fawcett, Nest’s CIO “…Tobacco companies are facing legal challenges across the world from governments taking action against an industry causing serious harm to their citizens. The harsher regulatory environment stops tobacco companies from attracting new customers and increasing their market share of existing smokers. In our opinion, tobacco is a struggling industry which is being regulated out of existence.
ABP gains €700m from tobacco, nuclear arms divestment
The €409bn Dutch civil service pension fund ABP completed the divestment of €4bn worth of holdings in nuclear arms manufacturers and tobacco producers in 2018.