JAMIE CARR: Ethical investing and the wages of sin
Is your portfolio as ethical and virtuous as a Scandinavian liberal? It comes at a cost for performance
Ne’er do-goods do best There has long been a trend to ensure that one’s portfolio is as ethical and virtuous as a Scandinavian liberal. The theory is that because you buy organic, drive a Prius and are rarely spotted with anything but Birkenstocks on your feet, your investments should match your core values and be clean enough to eat your breakfast off. However, there is compelling evidence to suggest that while this approach may salve your conscience and buy you considerable credit at the great reckoning, it comes at a cost for performance. If you crunch the numbers for those companies that have added the most value this millennium in terms of market cap, the gold medal for the S&P 500 goes to Apple, but the bronze goes to Altria, the tobacco and booze giant that lets you spark up a full-strength Marlboro and wash it down with a large equity stake in AB InBev. In the UK and Japan, the big prizes went to British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco, with local hero SABMiller and quaff...
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