The trust’s investment committee chair, Susan Seymour, said the trust had spent three years trying to persuade Reed Elsevier that it should abandon its arms trade interests for moral or reputational reasons.

“We decided to invest in Reed Elsevier based on ethical research,” she said. “It has since become apparent that the company not only has interests in the arms trade, which is deeply unethical and irredeemably corrupt, but that these are rapidly expanding.”

Reed Elsevier, a major information provider in the business, legal, education, and medical fields, organises arms exhibitions through its subsidiary companies, Reed Exhibitions and Spearhead Exhibitions. These include Defence Systems and Equipment International (DSEi). The company has also acquired the IDEX exhibition which is the focal point for arms sales in the Middle East, Gulf and Asia.

“It is a measure of our significant concern that we have taken the unusual step of going public on this matter,” Seymour added.