"It is premature really except to say that if Comcast is interested in divesting, or if Time Warner or AT&T Time Warner is interested in divesting, we certainly would be interested in buying their stake.
It concluded that excluding individual investments would be neither ethical or practical, and that it would have no influence with more "enlightened operators" in the fossil fuel sector if it divested from them.
Given investment opportunities seem relatively low returning (e.g. it has been buying aircraft, hotel and cruise assets), and the business could become even more asset light if it divested some of these assets, we think a cover below 2 times could be sustainable, suggesting a 2017 dividend per share of €0.70 or higher might be possible after all.
A study funded by the petroleum industry claims that Harvard would lose $108 million per year in investment returns if it divested its $35.9 billion endowment from fossil fuels, according to The Crimson, the university's campus newspaper.
Why has your congregation held onto its land so long (if it has) or divested its land (if it has)?
Swann pointed to recent research showing the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation would have been billions of dollars better off if it had divested from fossil fuels.
An analysis in November found that the Gates foundation would have been $1.9bn better off if it had divested from fossil fuels in 2012.
The Corporate Knights research examined how 14 large investment funds would have performed if they had divested from fossil fuels in October 2012.
Similarly, last year analysis of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation found the health charity would have been US$1.9bn better off if it had divested from fossil fuels three years earlier.
Much of it was a "slippery slope" argument: if the Gates Foundation divested from every firm which failed social responsibility tests, soon there'd be almost nothing left to invest in.
