War of words over nukes

When Mindful Money revealed that over 88 KiwiSaver funds were invested in nuclear weapons it was a surprise to many in the industry.

But the managing director of one of those funds, George Carter of Nikko AM, says that this is because of varying definitions surrounding controversial weapons’ screening processes.

“We have a screen against controversial weapons in all our funds which includes nuclear weapons. But if you go to the Mindful Money website and search for a Nikko fund and ask, ‘Does Nikko screen for nuclear weapons?’, it will have a big cross and say ‘No, the fund owns 0.4% in nuclear weapons’.”

“But we do have a screen for nuclear weapons. The reason that the Mindful Money data shows that we have 0.4% is because different screens use different definitions of what is classed as nuclear weapons.”