College Investments And Links To Chinese Companies and Universities

The request was successful.

Dear Magdalene College, Cambridge,

This is a formal request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Could you please provide:

(1) A list of companies which the College holds stocks and shares in, specifying how many shares are held and the approximate value of the shareholding.

(2) A list of exchange traded funds, private equity funds, mutual funds, index funds, commodities, hedge funds, and bonds that the college has investments in, including the approximate value of each.

(3) In the case of any indirectly held or fund-based investments a breakdown of the companies invested in through the fund, including the percentage of the total fund made up by each holding.

(4) A list of donations from and other professorships, fellowships, institutes or any other academic opportunities funded by Chinese companies including, but not limited to:

- Huawei
- Alibaba
- Tencent
- China Electronics Technology Group Corporation
- Yitu
- Megvii
- SenseTime
- CloudWalk
- Hikvision

(5) A list of any other instances of cooperation, academic or otherwise, between the College and universities and companies based in China.

If you are to invoke Section 43 to withhold information in relation to any of these questions please note you must provide details of the exact FOIA exemption, details of who would be prejudiced by this information, and a public interest test justifying a conclusion with arguments for and against the release of the information.

If you are to invoke Section 12 to withhold information in relation to any of these questions please provide details of how locating, retrieving and extracting this information would exceed the appropriate limit of £450 as set out in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. Please also be aware of your duty under section 16 (1) of the Act to advise and assist me in narrowing my request to bring it within the appropriate limit.

Thank you very much for your assistance with this request. If you would like any clarification on the information I have asked for, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. I look forward to receiving your response in the next 20 working days.

Yours faithfully,

Oliver Walsh

Kathryn Gee,

Dear Oliver

 

I refer to your recent request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
regarding links to Chinese companies and universities. Our responses to
your questions are given below, in bold:

 

(1) A list of companies which the College holds stocks and shares in,
specifying how many shares are held and the approximate value of the
shareholding.

Cloverleaf Ltd. One share, value £1.

 

(2) A list of exchange traded funds, private equity funds, mutual funds,
index funds, commodities, hedge funds, and bonds that the college has
investments in, including the approximate value of each.

CUEF: £3.7m

Charities Property Fund (CPF): £911k

UBS Private markets fund: £521k

Baillie Gifford Multi Asset Growth Fund: £12.0m

Baillie Gifford Responsible Global Equity Income Fund: £34.3m

 

(3) In the case of any indirectly held or fund-based investments a
breakdown of the companies invested in through the fund, including the
percentage of the total fund made up by each holding.

Baillie Gifford funds – details can be found on the Baillie Gifford
website at [1]https://www.bailliegifford.com/en/uk/ins...
.

·         Multi Asset Growth Fund – The College does not hold details of
the underlying equity funds for this and the nature of this fund is that
securities are changed very regularly.

·         Responsible Global Equity income Fund – this fund excludes any
sectors with significant activities in arms, tobacco, gambling,
pornography, alcohol, and thermal coal and tar sands. The fund’s
investment decisions are guided by the principles of the UN Global
Compact.

CUEF – we have a contractual obligation of confidentiality with regard to
details of this fund; exemption under section 41(b) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 applies.

CPF – details can be found online at [2]http://www.cpfund.co.uk/

UBS – we have a contractual obligation of confidentiality with regard to
details of this fund; exemption under section 41(b) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 applies.

 

(4) A list of donations from and other professorships, fellowships,
institutes or any other academic opportunities funded by Chinese companies
including, but not limited to:

- Huawei

- Alibaba

- Tencent

- China Electronics Technology Group Corporation

- Yitu

- Megvii

- SenseTime

- CloudWalk

- Hikvision

None.

 

(5) A list of any other instances of cooperation, academic or otherwise,
between the College and universities and companies based in China.

The College does not have any current contracts with Chinese companies or
Universities, but in the past we have hosted regular summer schools
involving student groups from China.

 

I hope you find this information helpful.

 

The College’s complaints procedure provides for an internal review of the
decisions regarding this response if you are dissatisfied with it.  You
should let me know if you wish to use it, letting me know your reasons for
dissatisfaction and any other matters to which the College should have
regard.  The review will be conducted by another officer of the College
who was not involved in responding to the original request. You have a
right to apply to the Information Commissioner for a decision whether, in
any specified respect, your request to the College for information has
been dealt with in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of
Information Act.  Details may be found on the Information Commissioner’s
website at [3]www.ico.gov.uk.

 

Kind regards

 

Kathryn

 

On behalf of the Freedom of Information Officer

 

Kathryn Gee

Secretary to the Assistant Bursar

Magdalene College, Cambridge CB3 0AG Tel: 01223 330575

Registered Charity Number 1137542

 

Please note that I work part-time so response times may vary

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References

Visible links
1. https://www.bailliegifford.com/en/uk/ins...
2. http://www.cpfund.co.uk/
3. http://www.ico.gov.uk/