divest – Benefits Canada.com

Sounding board: Institutional investors making Canada’s approach to China unsustainable

Gideon Scanlon — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 13:00:41 +0000

With the repatriation of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor following their three-year incarceration in China, relations between Ottawa and Beijing are to be reset. As Foreign Minister Marc Garneau put it, Canada will now coexist, compete, co-operate and challenge China. To do this, Canada should start paying closer attention to the signals its pension […]

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Do institutional investors have to choose between divestment and engagement?

mschmit — Thu, 11 Jun 2020 11:15:15 +0000

For institutional investors, the debate still rages over whether to divest from a company they find to have problematic practices where environmental, social and governance issues are concerned or to remain invested and engage with the company to try to push it in the desired direction. A new paper by smart beta platform provider Scientific Beta is […]

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Connecticut treasurer overseeing $37b in public pension funds aims to divest gun stock

mschmit — Tue, 03 Dec 2019 05:43:54 +0000

Connecticut state Treasurer Shawn Wooden, who oversees $37 billion in public pension funds, will announce Tuesday plans to reallocate $30 million worth of shares in civilian firearm manufacturer securities, while banning similar, future investments and creating incentives for banks and financial institutions to enact gun-related policies. If ultimately approved by an advisory board, it will […]

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Divesting from tobacco won’t hurt investment returns: report

mschmit — Fri, 08 Feb 2019 05:00:21 +0000

If institutional investors are looking to divest completely from an industry, tobacco would be ripe to pluck out of their portfolio, according to a new report by Genus Capital Management Inc. The report found that divesting entirely from tobacco wouldn’t have had a significant negative impact on returns over the past 20 years. “Though individual investors may […]

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Institutional investors increasingly see ESG as source of alpha: survey

mschmit — Tue, 02 Oct 2018 06:37:40 +0000

A growing number of institutional investors believe integrating environmental, social and governance factors into their portfolios can help generate alpha, according to a new survey by RBC Global Asset Management Inc. This represents a major jump, from 24 per cent in last year’s survey to 38 per cent this year. On the other hand, 20 per […]

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Time to Double-Down on Bad Companies?

mschmit — Wed, 10 May 2017 09:36:47 +0000

Mission hedging argues foundations and endowments can do more good by loading up on profitable companies they oppose.

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