Church sheds £1.9m of News Corp shares

THE Church of England has sold its shares in News Corporation over the phone-hacking scandal.

The Anglicans had threatened to pull their investments if the company failed to hold “senior managers” to account in July last year.

Yesterday, a spokesman said that after a year of dialogue it was “not satisfied that News Corporation had shown, or is likely in the immediate future to show, a commitment to implement necessary corporate governance reform”.

It sold its total shareholding for £1.9 million, representing 0.005 per cent of News Corp’s total publicly traded stock, following advice from its Ethical Investment Advisory Group (EIAG). Andrew Brown, secretary of the Church Commissioners, said: “Last year’s phone-hacking allegations raised some serious concerns about our holding. Our decision to disinvest was not taken lightly and follows a year of dialogue with the company, during which the EIAG put forward a number of recommendations around how corporate governance structures at News Corp could be improved. However, the EIAG does not feel that the company has brought about sufficient change and we have accepted its advice to disinvest.”