Tobacco: Philip Morris and Bn Scheme

tobacco: Nest will be going tobacco-free across its entire portfolio - both passive and active funds though it estimates it will take up to two years for this to fully happen, according to The Guardian. The 6bn scheme's exposure to tobacco is currently put at around 40m and includes holdings in British American Tobacco whose brands include Dunhill and Rothmans and Philip Morris, the company behind Marlboro. Nest National Employment Savings Trust a publicly-owned scheme set up by the government, says stricter worldwide regulation, increasingly aggressive legal action by governments against the tobacco industry and falling global smoking rates have all led it to conclude that tobacco is a poor investment for its members. Nest was set up by the government to help employers meet their obligations under the automatic enrolment retirement saving initiative, which went live in 2012. Nest says it has not taken this decision lightly, but we don't think it makes sense to continue investing in an industry whose business model looks increasingly unsustainable . It already has a tobacco-free policy on a couple of its funds. Currently, one in four UK workers have an account with Nest. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.