Norway Pension Fund Dumps Tobacco Holdings
January 20, 2010
(PLANSPONSOR.com) – A recommendation from the Council on Ethics at the Government
Pension Fund Global (GPFG) in Norway has led to a Minister of Finance decision
to divest from 17 tobacco-producing companies, the Norway Post reported.
The newspaper account said
the divestment in shares of the affected companies has already been carried
out.
In
formulating investment criteria on the matter, the Finance Minister tried to
match the policy on tobacco investments with existing rules screening out
certain weapons manufacturers, according to The Post.
The result is a rule that in principle will exclude all
production of tobacco, regardless of the percentage of business represented by
tobacco production.
The new screening criterion for tobacco production is
limited to tobacco products and does not include associated products such as
filters and flavor additives.
“It is important that the
ethical guidelines reflect at all times what can be considered to be commonly
held values of the owners of the fund,” Minister of Finance Sigbjørn Johnsen
told the newspaper.
Fred Schneyer
editors@plansponsor.com