Dutch doctors’ pensions boosted by tobacco

The Dutch family doctors’ pension fund has increased its investment in British American Tobacco despite protests about the shareholding earlier this year, according to a DutchNews.nl story.

The story quoted a Financieele Dagblad (FD) report as saying that information provided by the Bloomberg news agency showed that Stichting Pensioenfonds voor Huisartsen bought 4,120 shares in BAT a few months ago.

It is not clear whether the shares were bought before or after MPs raised questions in May about the investment.

The FD reported in May that the fund had made €140,000 last year selling some of its shares in BAT.

BAT shares have risen 10 per cent since the new shares were bought, the paper said. This means the fund’s 173,000 shares in the tobacco firm are now worth €7m.

‘This is just so wrong in every way,’ lung specialist, Wanda de Kanter, of the Rode Kruis hospital in Beverwijk, told the paper. ‘It is immoral and unethical.’