CalSTRS appears ready to adopt a resolution at its Wednesday investment committee meeting to sell its $274 million in tobacco holdings.
The $111 billion California State Teachers’ Retirement System, Sacramento, and consultant Pension Consulting Alliance found that legal and financial threats to the tobacco industry meet the fund’s newly adopted benchmark modification policy.
The policy allows changes in benchmarks when an industry faces at least three of four criteria: major litigation exposure; a significant threat of industrywide bankruptcy filings; regulatory and/or legislative actions that could have a substantial impact on industry earnings; and policy actions by institutional investors that could harm share prices.
