Interview | David Palmer
“We try to make a difference, to bring God’s work to the investment world.”
David Palmer, chief executive of Epworth Investment
Management, the Methodist Church’s investment manager, tells portfolio institutional about ethical investing, how
charities are evolving and why the Archbishop of Canterbury is a trailblazer when it comes to engagement.
What does an investment portfolio look like when it is consistent with Christian ethics?
It will be names and asset allocations that you recognise. At the end of the day, we are an investment manager and performance is important. We are a value-based investor. Growth at a reasonable price is our mantra. Companies that will be here in 10 years’ time, in 20 years’ time, we don’t worry about short- term fluctuations. It is the long-term returns that we are focusing on. The names in our portfolio will be familiar to you. The key thing is what we don’t invest in because of our ethics. It is things that do harm to God’s creation, to our bod- ies. Tobacco is an obvious example of
18 | portfolio institutional | March 2019 | issue 82
things that we exclude, as well as compa- nies making excess profits from alcohol. We wouldn’t mind a retailer selling beer or a brewer with limited sales, but if hard spirits were a large part of their sales then we would not invest in them. John Wesley [the founder of the Methodist church] was around when gin was causing terrible problems in our society. So he was anti-drink because he could see the harm it was doing. In general, we are not against drink but if there are excessive revenues been sought for hard alcohol then we will not invest. We have a nuanced policy on defence stocks. We recognise that we need to defend ourselves in times of warfare, but we would not invest in platforms that are
for aggression rather than defence. We don’t invest in nuclear. We are a unilateral disarmament church.
You are a practising Christian, is that important in doing this role? It is why I took it on. Not only are we an investment house that disinvests from tobacco stocks, but we also recognise that there are many companies in bad areas that behave well, and in good areas that behave badly. It is not just a question of invest or disinvest, it is helping those com- panies to improve their practices. That engagement work as well as the invest- ment work is why I am here. The motivation is that we are doing more than just an investment house.
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