The Dutch family doctors’ pension fund has increased its investment in British American Tobacco despite protests about the shareholding earlier this year, the Financieele Dagblad reports on Tuesday.

Information from news agency Bloomberg shows the 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 about the investment in May.
The FD reported in May the fund had made €140,000 last year selling some of its shares in BAT. BAT shares have risen 10% 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.
Specialists
Medical specialists also invest heavily in tobacco firms, the FD said. Their pension fund has almost €17m invested in tobacco shares.
‘This is just so wrong in every way,’ lung specialist Wanda de Kanter from the Rode Kruis hospital in Beverwijk told the paper. ‘It is immoral and unethical.’
A spokesman for the specialists’ pension fund told the FD doctors themselves have no direct influence on the fund’s portfolio, which is run by independent managers.
No-one from the family doctors’ fund was available for comment, the FD said.
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