Shares in the arms and tobacco industry

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Dear Trinity College, Cambridge,

I am writing to request information on the financial relationships the college holds with the arms and tobacco trade (specifically, but not limited to:

- BAE Systems
- Rolls-Royce
- Smiths Group
- Cobham
- Elbit
- Finmeccanica
- GKN
- QinetiQ
- VT Group
- Halliburton,
- United Technologies
- Airbus SE
- Lockheed Martin
- Caterpillar Inc,
- General Dynamics
- Raytheon
- Northrop Grumman
- Raytheon, Textron and Thales Group
- L3 communications

- Philip Morris
- British American Tobacco
- Altria
- Imperial Brands

Please include the following information:

1) A portfolio statement for the fund(s) the college has investments in. If you do not have a copy of this, please send me a list of the names of the fund(s) and the corresponding management companies. Details should be broken down, year-by-year for the last five financial years.

2) Please also confirm if any shares are held in arms trade companies as part of a pension fund or endowment, either directly or indirectly through an externally managed fund. Details should be broken down, year-by-year for the last five financial years.

Yours faithfully,

Sarah Woolley

foi, Trinity College, Cambridge

1 Attachment

Dear Sarah Woolley,

I refer to your request dated 17th June 2020. I am the Freedom of Information Officer at Trinity College, Cambridge.

1) The College has no financial relationship with the companies listed.

2) The College holds it investments through a tobacco and arms free ESG index tracking fund and through funds:

a) The index tracking fund is designed to track the MSCI ESG Screened Index. This is designed to exclude controversial weapons, nuclear weapons, civilian firearms, tobacco, thermal coal and oil sands. A list of investments held in the tracker at 31st December 2019 is attached.
b) A list of funds held at 31st December 2019 is attached. The information held on their investments is attached where a) it is held and b) it is not subject to confidentiality provisions.

Should you have any queries or complaints about this reply you may write to the Junior Bursar, Mr E Knapp at Trinity College, Cambridge. Any complaint should be in writing and should set out clearly the grounds for such complaint. Should you not be satisfied with the outcome, you have the right of appeal to the information commissioner.

Yours sincerely,

Chris Morley

_____________________________________________
Chris Morley, Secretary of the College Council Trinity College, Cambridge CB2 1TQ
Direct: 01223 338469
email: [email address]
web: http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/

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