Future Fund excludes tobacco

1 March 2013
| By Staff |
image
image
expand image

The Future Fund will exclude primary tobacco producers from its investment portfolio, its Board of Guardians announced today.

The move follows a review of investments by the board's governance committee announced last October.

The fund's investment portfolio is exposed to tobacco through 14 entities with a value of $222 million at 31 December 2012 (0.3 per cent of the value of the Future Fund).

David Gonski, chairman of the board, said it had noted tobacco's damaging health effects, addictive properties and the fact that there was no safe level of consumption.

The board had also considered its investment policies and approach to environmental, social and governance issues.

"As a result, the board determined that in this instance it is appropriate to exclude primary tobacco product manufacturers," he said.

The board's governance committee reviewed all aspects of its exclusions policy as it related to tobacco, and also  considered the existing approach to exclusions across its portfolio. No further exclusions were appropriate, it said.

Although the nation-building fund was not exposed to tobacco through the 14 entities, it said the same restriction would apply going forward.

The fund had come under fire for its environmental social and governance policy, or alleged lack of it, by the Asset Owners Disclosure Project (AODP) after it rejected an invitation to disclose its climate change risk strategy based on "resource constraints".

Read more about:

AUTHOR

Recommended for you

sub-bgsidebar subscription

Never miss the latest developments in Super Review! Anytime, Anywhere!

Grant Banner

From my perspective, 40- 50% of people are likely going to be deeply unhappy about how long they actually live. ...

11 months ago
Kevin Gorman

Super director remuneration ...

11 months 1 week ago
Anthony Asher

No doubt true, but most of it is still because over 45’s have been upgrading their houses with 30 year mortgages. Money ...

11 months 1 week ago

Jim Chalmers has defended changes to the Future Fund’s mandate, referring to himself as a “big supporter” of the sovereign wealth fund, amid fierce opposition from the Co...

2 days 2 hours ago

Demand from institutional investors was the main driver of growth in Australia’s responsible investment (RI) market in 2023, as the industry continued to gain momentum....

2 days 2 hours ago

In a new review of the country’s largest fund, a research house says it’s well placed to deliver attractive returns despite challenges....

2 days 3 hours ago