News

Church reports strong returns despite ethical barriers

Finance | 7 May 2008

The Church Commissioners have reported strong investment returns for last year despite excluding certain stocks on ethical grounds from its portfolio.

The Commissioners manage the historic resources of the Church of England and contribute around 17 per cent of the cost of running the Church.

Strong performance by property investments helped the Church achieve a return of 9.4 per cent on its portfolio compared with a return of 7 per cent by the 233 charity funds in performance company WM’s benchmark.

Over the past ten years, the Commissioners’ total return on investments has averaged 9.5 per cent per year, placing them in the top 2 per cent of charity funds for the decade.

As a result, they claim it has been able to distribute £37m more each year to the Church than if the investments had performed only at the industry average of 7.1 per cent per year over the last ten years.

This was in spite of poorer-than-average returns on its equities investments.

Andrew Brown, secretary to the Church Commissioners, explained: “Strong performance from our property portfolio was the major contributor to our success in 2007.

“We were particularly pleased by the performance of our commercial, rural let land and strategic land sectors last year, but our quoted equities portfolios underperformed their benchmarks, in part due to the continuing strength of stocks excluded on ethical grounds.”

Brown added that while it wasn’t immune from the current uncertainties in the world economy, “we have a diverse portfolio and are well positioned to weather difficult financial conditions”.

Don’t turn a blind eye to atrocity

Meanwhile, the Church Investors Group (CIG) has condemned both the continued war and human rights abuses in the Sudan, and the direct or indirect part certain companies are playing in prolonging the conflict.

CIG chairman, John Cunningham, said some companies and governments “appear to turn a blind eye to murder, rape and other such atrocities” in the pursuit of immediate commercial gain.

“The Churches cannot be silent in the face of such a situation, but must raise their voices in the hope of advancing the cause of peace and justice,” he said.

The Church Investors Group began in 1973 as an informal ecumenical gathering of those with trustee responsibility for church investments to come together to discuss ethical issues related to investment.

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