Harvard Will Sell Major Bank Stock

The University yesterday announced that it will sell its stock in Citibank and Manufacturers Hanover Trust, two U.S. banks in Harvard's investment portfolio that lend money to the South African government.

The Southern African Solidarity Committee (SASC) and other campus groups have called for divestiture of stock in these banks because they support apartheid.

Mackay Shields Financial Corporation, which controls the part of Harvard's portfolio which includes the bank stock, yesterday informed the University that it was selling $1.6 million worth of stock, including approximately $600,000 of bank stock, "for investment reasons."

Lawrence F. Stevens '65, secretary of the Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility (ACSR), which has been discussing the issue of Harvard's investment in corporation operating in South Africa, said yesterday he is "quite thoroughly convinced the decision was not political but financial in nature."

George Sigular, assistant treasurer of the University, said yesterday he believed the investment firm "is totally unaware of what's going on here on campus on this issue."

The SASC yesterday released a statement saying it feels "there is a connection between the sudden decision to sell this stock and the campus-wide support of the committee's demands."

Garry W. Martin '78, president of the Harvard-Radcliffe Black Students Association, said yesterday the University had to claim it was selling the bank stock for financial reasons or "it would be under pressure to divest itself of its stock in other corporations operating in South Africa."

"It's too big a sale to be pure coincidence," he added.

The University still owns over $10 million of short-term certificates of deposit in three banks operating in South Africa, but these certificates will be paid off by June at the latest, Sigular said.

The SASC statement calls the University to "sell these certificates immediately with full public explanation."

The stock transaction will not affect the deliberations of the ACSR, Stevens said, adding "We will still come up with a general policy towards banks operating in South Africa. Without such a policy, the University could conceivably purchase stock in other banks of this sort."

George. J. Vojta, executive vice president of Citibank for international affairs, defended his bank's South African loan policies before the ACSR.

Mackay Shields originally purchased the bank stock in 1976, and its market value last June stood at $840,000.

Sigular said the bank stock transaction is largely unimportant, representing a total sale of two-tenths of 1 per cent of the portfolio.