UTAM

There’s been some talk among the gossips at Simcoe Hall recently. What IS that song the head honcho at U of T and the whizz kid at UTAM keeping humming down the hallways? Well, we have the answer for you. Yes, it’s that old Ella number.

First, you say, you do

And then you don’t

And then you say, you will

And then you won’t

You’re undecided now

So what are you gonna do?

From what we’ve learned it all came up with a meeting between the two and other key figures involved in U of T’s endowment and pension fund holdings. The persuasive charm of the university’s president had recently been seen on screen assuring viewers that all investments were in line with responsible guidelines for divesting from climate-damaging companies while emphasising his strong distaste for the irresponsible kind – the headline-grabbing crazies who were actually divesting from actual fossil fuel companies.

Apparently at the meeting Darren had laughingly pointed out to the assembled company the great growth potential for investments in fossil fuel companies, quoting the UN’s “Production Gap Report” that they will be building infrastructure to produce 120% more fossil fuels by 2030 than would be consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5°C. “Yes,” Meric had replied, “But do we say we know how much we’re invested in them or do we say we don’t”. Apparently the meeting continued, but as they were leaving Darren and Meric were heard singing those lines but with a slight twist, “Do we say we know?/ And then we won’t?”

Approaching their separate offices, Darren was heard to say, “Why don’t you just tell’em we’d love to tell them how much we have invested in the real nasties but, on account of the fact we pay lots of money to investment funds to do the work for us, we don’t know how bad we are? Our hands are clean.” Meric shuddered, “Darren ol’ buddy, I’m university president. I can’t say there’s anything I don’t know.” As he closed the door behind him, he heard Darren humming that damned tune as he walked off down the hall.

Well do they or don’t they?  Because UTAM employs investment managers they do not actively choose the stocks they invest in. But, publicly traded institutional investment managers are required to disclose their holdings each fiscal quarter. And UTAM does tell us which funds they use (or most of them).

So here’s our Fund of the Week selected from the list:

T.D. Asset Management (which we’ll dub To be Denied Asset Management). In Dec 2020 TDAM had investments in 125 oil and gas extracting companies and sub-industries including oil and gas exploration, acquisition and development of properties, drilling, production, refinement, pipeline construction, and distribution.