College indirectly invests £785,000 in tobacco industry

Earlier this week the London Student revealed that Imperial College has £785,000 indirectly invested in tobacco companies. This conflicts with the extensive cancer research done by Imperial academics.

The investment is split between investment firms, the College has a £505,000 share in British American Tobacco, a £182,000 stake in Imperial Tobacco group and £98,000 in Reynolds American.

We spoke to a College spokesperson who released the following statement about the investments: “It is Imperial College policy to neither undertake research to develop or promote tobacco products nor to directly invest in tobacco companies. The College Endowment has a responsibility to optimise investment return to support the College’s academic mission, and it therefore holds some investments in managed funds. The College has no control over the composition of those funds, which change on a continual basis.”