In an interview with property magazine Estates Gazette just a month after the Church of England wrote of its £40m investment in the project Joseph Cannon, chief surveyor, said that while the episode was “painful” much of the criticism levelled at the Church was undeserved.
“The loss of our investment in Stuyvesant Town is very unpleasant and clearly not something we would ever have wished for. But painful as it has been, we have been able to absorb it and it has not knocked us off strategic course in any way,” he said.
Yes indeed.
Investing in Vedanta, so that they could dig up someone’s holy mountain, was an opportunity for the CofE to be heard in their decision-making.
Investing all a pension fund’s assets in speculative stocks and shares against all market advice was not foolish, but just one of those things anyone could have done with a new scheme. Foolishness with a long established scheme is perfectly sensible with a new one.
Investing in a New York property built for war veterans where the value of the investment depends on a speculative series of court cases to overturn their protected rents is not stupid, but a Christian thing to do. The majority of advisors who advise never investing on the basis of a possible court win just don’t know what they are talking about.
And those like Pageantmaster who question the wisdom of liquidating large cash holdings and safer investments to invest in Al Gore’s emperor’s new clothes carbon trading scheme which doesn’t publish any results just don’t know what they are talking about.
And if you believe all the above, you can say with Joseph Cannon that:
and
Yes indeed, the Church Commissioners, the pension trustees, and those who oversee them, the Archbishops’ Council and the Archbishops themselves are wise and competent investors and guardians of the Church’s funds and a blessing we don’t deserve.
Tush to those who say that in any commercial organisation they and their advisors would have been thrown out and sued for gross incompetence.
How do you make a small fortune?
Start with a large one and give it to the Church of England.
Interesting to look at Mr Cannon’s background: major commercial fund management experience? A proven track record in a big surveying or property management firm or bank or successful fund? Well not exactly:
[blockquote]Joseph is a Bachelor of Divinity of King’s College, London and he later earned a Post Graduate Diploma in Estate Management from the University of the South Bank [South Bank Poly to you and I]. He joined the Commissioners’ staff in 1987, and has been Head of Strategic Asset Management since 2004[/blockquote]
I have no idea of his personal competence, but no doubt that divinity degree comes in handy for investing on a wing and a prayer.
When one looks at the profile of the Church’s Commissioners and advisors this pattern of unspectacular credentials and amateurish insularity is repeated time and time again, and may go to explain some of the frankly unbelievable investment decisions they make. But then with what was a £6 billion fund to manage if you pay peanuts…
The failure to consult outside competant investment advisors is regrettable, but then Church management’s failure to consult is not limited to investment matters.
It’s interesting to compare the efforts of the Church Commissioners with those of the Investments Committee of the Church Pension Fund. All portfolios have of course been damaged in the 2007-2008 collapse, but CPF remains fully funded and consistently outperforms market benchmarks. 445 Fifth Avenue is an island of competence in a sea of ecclesiastical [i] incompetence[/i], no question, and the Trustees and Dennis Sullivan and his team all have earned our respect and appreciation.
Bruce Robison