Pension Pulse

Andrew Barry of Barron's reports Berkshire cuts stake in BofA, eliminates Citigroup: Berkshire Hathaway eliminated its equity stake in Citigroup and reduced its large holding in Bank of America while adding to its investment in Constellation Brands, according to a 13-F report with the Securities and Exchange Commission late Thursday. Berkshire sold 14.6 million shares of Citigroup and cut its holding in Bank of America by 48.6 million shares to 631 million shares, while roughly doubling its stake in Constellation Brands to 12 million shares. Berkshire also requested confidentiality with the Securities and Exchange Commission for one or more equity holdings that it omitted from the 13-F report. This likely reflected a desire by CEO Warren Buffett, who oversees Berkshire’s equity portfolio, to continue accumulating one or more holdings without tipping off investors and potentially driving up the stock price. Berkshire requested confidentiality when it was accumulating its st...

Mathilda Heller of the Jerusalem Post reports University of Toronto Faculty Association votes to divest from Israel: The University of Toronto Faculty Association (UTFA) has voted to divest from Israel, the association announced on Friday. This decision stems from Israel’s “illegal occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” the UTFA said. The motion, which passed by 52% of the vote, calls on the Ontario University Pension Plan (UPP) to produce a rapid timeline for complete divestment from all direct and indirect holdings in entities that support or sustain Israel’s “occupation and/or which manufacture” or distribute arms, ammunition, or munitions of war where “there are reasonable grounds to suspect they may have been used by Israel in Palestine.” Motion equates divestment from Israel akin to policy for Russia  It added that all new investments should be screened, and that these divestment commitments should then be incorporated into the UPP’s investment exclusion...