The deadline for dissidents to throw director candidates in the ring is looming for companies with spring annual meetings. Investors are intending to nominate opposing board candidates and have launched a flurry of proxy battles as companies work to resolve demands behind the scenes. Indeed, between Jan. 1 and Feb. 22 this year, activists announced…
Category: activism
Petition: Demand that State Treasurers and public pensions vote for climate justice and Indigenous rights this spring
This April and May, investors in Wall Street banks and insurance companies will vote on at least four shareholder proposals related to climate justice and Indigenous rights. A resolution calling for a time-bound phase-out of financing for companies engaged in fossil fuel expansion. A resolution demanding that big banks report on how they respect internationally-recognized…
Goldman Activism Head Says Companies Face ‘Swarm’ of Agitators
Activist investing is at an all-time high and large companies are particularly vulnerable to packs of agitators that may not even have the same agenda, according to one of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s top dealmakers. “We used to refer to this as a wolfpack — wolfpack implies some kind of coordination,” said Avinash Mehrotra, global head…
Shareholder Activism Increase — On Both Sides
Shareholder activism is on the rise, according to a new analysis released this morning by The Conference Board (and shared in advance with CEO Daily.) The volume of shareholder proposals is expected to increase in 2023, in part because new rules from the SEC narrow the grounds for excluding such proposals, and also because more…
Activist investor campaigns rise back up to pre-Covid levels
Campaigns by shareholder activists look set to rise further this year after a return to pre-pandemic levels in 2022. The conclusions come from experts following research by Lazard revealing activist action was at its highest for the past four years. Lazard documented 235 campaigns last year at companies with market caps of more than $500m,…
Activist investor Bluebell targets BlackRock for inadequate ESG — Reuters
Tiny activist investor Bluebell Capital Partners is taking aim at BlackRock (BLK.N) and wants to replace longtime CEO Larry Fink, criticizing the world’s largest asset manager as being inconsistent in its focus on environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) issues. Bluebell, with roughly $250 million in assets, said BlackRock, which invests over $8 trillion, and…
Companies Brace for Onslaught of New Activists After Change in Proxy-Voting Rules – WSJ
“This proxy season is shaping up to be the busiest on record,” said Shaun Mathew, a partner at law firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP who advises companies on how to prepare for and respond to activists.“Companies are concerned it will draw in first-time activists who think they can take advantage of the new system to…
Disney Board Adds Tech Exec Carolyn Everson in Agreement With Investor Dan Loeb
Disney added technology executive Carolyn Everson to its board of directors on Friday as part of an support agreement with activist investor and hedge fund investor Daniel Loeb and his company Third Point LLC after “a constructive dialogue.”Loeb, who acquired a 0.4% stake in Disney in August, worth at the time nearly $1 billion, had…
FTI Consulting: Still Spinning
We are not surprised to see FTI Consulting is still reliably unreliable. This is the firm that famously created fake dark money-funded front groups, fake news sites, and fake social media profiles and has not answered our inquiries about their reported changes. Managing Director Kurt Moeller writes a piece titled “5 Factors Impacting Activists’ Declining…
Dutch investor group targets oil, gas execs’ pay plans if climate goals fall short | Reuters
A group of Dutch investors managing assets worth nearly 1.5 trillion euros threatened on Friday to oppose oil and gas sector executives’ pay plans if their companies failed to set climate change goals in line with the Paris Agreement on global warming. The institutional investors, including the asset management arms of insurers Aegon(AEGN.AS) and NN…
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