“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…
Tag: activism
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…
Why Finance Firms Should Pay Attention to Activist Investing
Activist investing was never really an activity for ‘the people’ historically. Perhaps because ‘the people’ hadn’t yet considered how being a shareholder could be used as a form of activism. Now, we find ourselves amid a retail investor boom, and it shows no signs of slowing down. They even have a name tag for this…
Do Hedge Funds Create Value? 3 Lessons From Danone And Unilever
Hedge funds do not have to disclose to the SEC any intentions to exert control of a company if they own less than 5% of a company. These small stakes can still have huge impact, as we have seen at corporate giants like Exxon and Nestle. Even small hedge funds can have significant influence if…
Shareholder Commons: First Annual Report
“TSC is a new NGO that is catalysing a paradigm shift in responsible investment.” … In their first year of activity, they have begun to build a field of asset owners, asset managers, advisors, and civil society organisations who want a new toolkit to ensure that profits are aligned with social cohesion and environmental preservation. They…
Activist Stewardship
Highlights from a new article on hedge fund activism on behalf of long-term shareholder value, from Robert Eccles (Oxford University), Aeisha Mastagni (CalSTRS), and Kirsty Jenkinson (CalSTRS): The time has come for “activist stewardship.” Simply put, this means putting the skills and techniques of activist hedge funds to work where a company’s financial performance is…
Make climate risk reports mandatory for 480 FTSE firms, say investors | Environment | The Guardian
An influential group of investors is urging UK regulators to make climate risk reporting mandatory for nearly 500 FTSE-listed firms. The Investment Association (IA), which represents 250 members with £8.5tn in assets, has thrown its weight behind calls for compulsory environmental disclosures, amid concerns that listed companies are not being transparent about how climate risks…
COVID-19 and Activism
From Sidley Austin: As the COVID-19 pandemic began to unfold in the US in early March, it quickly became clear that the crisis would act as a “poison pill” that would sharply reduce shareholder activism in the spring. Initially, many activists were preoccupied with their own survival and/ or attracting new capital rather than launching…
Billionaire Chris Hohn forces first annual investor vote on climate policy | Financial Times
Spanish airports operator Aena is set to become the first company in the world to give shareholders an annual vote on its effort to tackle climate change, bowing to pressure from billionaire UK hedge fund manager Chris Hohn. Sir Christopher’s TCI Fund Management, one of Aena’s largest independent shareholders, has been at loggerheads with the…
ValueEdge Advisors 