Latest news with #activistInvestors
NHK
08-07-2025
- Business
- NHK
Activist investors spark change at Japanese firms
Activist investors have been unwelcome at Japanese companies due to their demands. But that is starting to change.
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Analysis-Activist investors set to push for changes as dealmaking picks up
By Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Emma-Victoria Farr NEW YORK/FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Activist shareholders are poised to push harder for corporate changes in the coming months, finding fresh confidence to launch campaigns as the pace of dealmaking picks up again. Bankers, lawyers, and investors forecast a spike in fights over corporate leadership, operational improvements and spin-offs in the second half of 2025. Many global corporations will gird for costly and time-consuming battles, they said, even as some activist investors may be willing to compromise. "Activity in the back half of the year will be more significant," said Alfredo Porretti, global co-head of Shareholder Engagement and M&A Capital Markets at JPMorgan Chase. "Activists are aiming more carefully but are not pulling the trigger yet." The expected rebound in campaigns at global companies will follow an unusually quiet second quarter when only 59 were launched, including ones at U.S. information technology company Hewlett Packard Enterprise and U.S. consumer healthcare company Kenvue, which makes Band-Aids and Tylenol. Between April and the end of June, the pace of campaigns where investors push for changes to boost the share price shrank by 16% from a busy first quarter. They were down 32% from a year ago, Barclays' data show. Investors said many activists remained on the sidelines in the second quarter, worried about how U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs and tax policies might affect their proposed strategies to improve corporate performance. "Activists re-evaluated public campaigns in the second quarter given equity market volatility and macro uncertainty but, privately, there were significant levels of agitation through to mid-year," said Pam Codo-Lotti, chief operating officer of Activism and Shareholder Advisory at Goldman Sachs. Looking ahead, both established corporate agitators such as Elliott Investment Management, Jana Partners and Sachem Head Capital Management are reviewing new ideas, as are newcomers who have never tried to publicly prod companies to perform better, people familiar with their work said. Already in the first days of the second half, activist Starboard Value built a stake in online travel company Tripadvisor with plans to engage with management. Activists usually target companies during the fall and winter months, long before the next year's annual meeting season in the spring. Often they start with private talks before making demands public. Companies are preparing for the expected onslaught. Board members with negative memories of previous activist pressure are pushing management to hire advisers now to assess vulnerabilities and take pre-emptive action, said two directors at large American companies not permitted to discuss the preparations publicly. Long-tenured directors might be replaced or chief executives not keeping pace with peers might be moved out, they said. "In times of economic volatility and uncertainty, shareholder activism is more likely due to weak spots in companies," said Ingo Speich, head of sustainability and corporate governance at German asset manager Deka Investment. "Poor governance is a constant source of shareholder activism. Companies in transition mode are more vulnerable and open windows for shareholders to become more active." So far this year, the favorite demand for activist investors has been a call for board changes, appearing in 43% of campaigns during the first half of 2025. Activist Mantle Ridge successfully pushed for board changes at Air Products and Chemicals and Elliott did so at Phillips 66. Looking ahead, bankers and lawyers expect a pickup in demands for sales of companies or spin-offs, which featured in only 33% of all campaigns in the first half. They pointed to growing investor confidence that the pace of global dealmaking will pick up. "We expect public activist campaigns levels to accelerate in the second half of the year with renewed focus on M&A targets, of course barring macro headwinds," Goldman's Codo-Lotti said. After making a name for themselves years ago with noisy public campaigns waged by investors like Carl Icahn, Bill Ackman and Daniel Loeb, many activists are now ready to adopt a lower profile and stay out of the headlines, bankers and lawyers said. Institutional investors, who jointly oversee $35 trillion in assets, "overwhelmingly view activism as a useful market force" and 77% see it as a catalyst for change while 71% call it a driver of accountability, according to new research from shareholder advisory firm SquareWell Partners. With their reputations established, activists may be ready to stop short of waging expensive and messy proxy fights, agreeing instead to quiet settlements. For instance, Jana Partners had long pushed French-fry maker Lamb Weston for operational and board changes and possibly even a sale of the company. In late June, the hedge fund averted a high-profile boardroom fight by scoring a settlement that put four of its candidates on the board and added two that both sides agreed on. "Peace may indeed be breaking out with more settlements reached and board seats going to the activists," JPMorgan's Porretti said, adding "but the settlements are reached only if each side is feeling a little weakness." 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Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Analysis-Activist investors set to push for changes as dealmaking picks up
By Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Emma-Victoria Farr NEW YORK/FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Activist shareholders are poised to push harder for corporate changes in the coming months, finding fresh confidence to launch campaigns as the pace of dealmaking picks up again. Bankers, lawyers, and investors forecast a spike in fights over corporate leadership, operational improvements and spin-offs in the second half of 2025. Many global corporations will gird for costly and time-consuming battles, they said, even as some activist investors may be willing to compromise. "Activity in the back half of the year will be more significant," said Alfredo Porretti, global co-head of Shareholder Engagement and M&A Capital Markets at JPMorgan Chase. "Activists are aiming more carefully but are not pulling the trigger yet." The expected rebound in campaigns at global companies will follow an unusually quiet second quarter when only 59 were launched, including ones at U.S. information technology company Hewlett Packard Enterprise and U.S. consumer healthcare company Kenvue, which makes Band-Aids and Tylenol. Between April and the end of June, the pace of campaigns where investors push for changes to boost the share price shrank by 16% from a busy first quarter. They were down 32% from a year ago, Barclays' data show. Investors said many activists remained on the sidelines in the second quarter, worried about how U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs and tax policies might affect their proposed strategies to improve corporate performance. "Activists re-evaluated public campaigns in the second quarter given equity market volatility and macro uncertainty but, privately, there were significant levels of agitation through to mid-year," said Pam Codo-Lotti, chief operating officer of Activism and Shareholder Advisory at Goldman Sachs. Looking ahead, both established corporate agitators such as Elliott Investment Management, Jana Partners and Sachem Head Capital Management are reviewing new ideas, as are newcomers who have never tried to publicly prod companies to perform better, people familiar with their work said. Already in the first days of the second half, activist Starboard Value built a stake in online travel company Tripadvisor with plans to engage with management. Activists usually target companies during the fall and winter months, long before the next year's annual meeting season in the spring. Often they start with private talks before making demands public. Companies are preparing for the expected onslaught. Board members with negative memories of previous activist pressure are pushing management to hire advisers now to assess vulnerabilities and take pre-emptive action, said two directors at large American companies not permitted to discuss the preparations publicly. Long-tenured directors might be replaced or chief executives not keeping pace with peers might be moved out, they said. "In times of economic volatility and uncertainty, shareholder activism is more likely due to weak spots in companies," said Ingo Speich, head of sustainability and corporate governance at German asset manager Deka Investment. "Poor governance is a constant source of shareholder activism. Companies in transition mode are more vulnerable and open windows for shareholders to become more active." So far this year, the favorite demand for activist investors has been a call for board changes, appearing in 43% of campaigns during the first half of 2025. Activist Mantle Ridge successfully pushed for board changes at Air Products and Chemicals and Elliott did so at Phillips 66. Looking ahead, bankers and lawyers expect a pickup in demands for sales of companies or spin-offs, which featured in only 33% of all campaigns in the first half. They pointed to growing investor confidence that the pace of global dealmaking will pick up. "We expect public activist campaigns levels to accelerate in the second half of the year with renewed focus on M&A targets, of course barring macro headwinds," Goldman's Codo-Lotti said. After making a name for themselves years ago with noisy public campaigns waged by investors like Carl Icahn, Bill Ackman and Daniel Loeb, many activists are now ready to adopt a lower profile and stay out of the headlines, bankers and lawyers said. Institutional investors, who jointly oversee $35 trillion in assets, "overwhelmingly view activism as a useful market force" and 77% see it as a catalyst for change while 71% call it a driver of accountability, according to new research from shareholder advisory firm SquareWell Partners. With their reputations established, activists may be ready to stop short of waging expensive and messy proxy fights, agreeing instead to quiet settlements. For instance, Jana Partners had long pushed French-fry maker Lamb Weston for operational and board changes and possibly even a sale of the company. In late June, the hedge fund averted a high-profile boardroom fight by scoring a settlement that put four of its candidates on the board and added two that both sides agreed on. "Peace may indeed be breaking out with more settlements reached and board seats going to the activists," JPMorgan's Porretti said, adding "but the settlements are reached only if each side is feeling a little weakness." 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Yahoo
07-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
BlackBerry Limited (BB): A Bull Case Theory
We came across a bullish thesis on BlackBerry Limited by Polymath Investor on Substack. In this article, we will summarize the bulls' thesis on BB. BlackBerry Limited's share was trading at $4.3200 as of 18th June. BB's forward P/E was 42.92 according to Yahoo Finance. BlackBerry, long known for its legacy in mobile devices, is undergoing a transformation that has recently attracted renewed bullish interest, particularly centered around its Internet of Things (IoT) division. The company's Q4 results highlight the strength of its QNX-powered IoT segment, which delivered record revenue of $66 million with exceptional 83% gross margins. This business powers embedded software in over 235 million vehicles globally and continues to benefit from the accelerating adoption of connected and autonomous vehicle technologies. Despite this robust performance, BlackBerry's overall financials remain underwhelming due to the ongoing struggles of its cybersecurity segment, which has seen stagnating growth and margin compression. This discrepancy between segment performance and overall valuation presents a sum-of-the-parts (SOTP) opportunity, where the high-margin, high-growth IoT unit is overshadowed by the underperforming cybersecurity division. There is growing speculation that BlackBerry could initiate a strategic separation of these two businesses to unlock shareholder value, especially with activist pressure mounting and the board now seemingly more aligned with such restructuring initiatives. The company has already hinted at such a move in prior strategic reviews, and a formal separation or sale of the IoT business could yield a significantly higher valuation than the market currently reflects. Even in a base-case scenario where no separation occurs, the IoT division's growth trajectory and margin profile provide a strong underpinning for a re-rating of BlackBerry shares. For equity investors, the downside appears limited given the embedded value of the IoT business, while any corporate action could serve as a meaningful catalyst for upside. Previously, we covered a on BlackBerry Limited by NYCandrun in February 2025, which highlighted the company's underappreciated positioning in embedded automotive software through QNX, the SaaS-like potential of its IVY platform, and the stabilization of its cybersecurity segment. The company's stock price has depreciated by approximately 23% since our coverage. This is because the re-rating thesis has not yet played out due to muted IVY traction and macro headwinds. The thesis still stands as QNX continues to grow, and IVY has real adoption potential. Polymath shares a similar view but emphasizes the strategic unlock potential of a formal separation between the IoT and cybersecurity businesses. Inc. is on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 328 hedge fund portfolios held AMZN at the end of the first quarter, which was 339 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of AMZN as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an extremely cheap AI stock that is also a major beneficiary of Trump tariffs and onshoring, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: 8 Best Wide Moat Stocks to Buy Now and 30 Most Important AI Stocks According to BlackRock. Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Activist investors slow pace of demands amid global uncertainties-data
By Svea Herbst-Bayliss NEW YORK(Reuters) -Activist investors who push companies for operational changes and management shake-ups waged fewer campaigns during the first half of 2025 as tariffs, wars and U.S. President Donald Trump's unpredictable policies made them more cautious, new data show. The pace of investor demands, aimed at pushing up a company's share price, fell 12% to 129 campaigns launched during the first six months of 2025, compared with 147 a year ago, according to numbers compiled by investment bank Barclays. "The environment was shaped by mixed economic signals, fears about wars and geopolitical tensions and the instability created by future tariffs and trade wars," said Jim Rossman, global head of shareholder advisory at Barclays. "And taken together that is creating an environment of caution." The slowdown comes after a record number of corporate agitators made demands last year and the pace of campaigns jumped by 17% in the first three months of this year. Elliott Investment Management, among the world's most powerful corporate activists, pressed for changes at six companies, including BP and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, roughly half the number of campaigns it launched a year ago. But it deployed $8.8 billion in assets, the most of any activist this year. Also so-called first-timers who were becoming more comfortable employing activist tactics last year stepped to the sidelines late in the first half. During the second quarter when stock markets gyrated as Trump threatened harsher tariffs only to reverse course before suggesting them again, campaigns launched by first-timers dropped 27% from the first quarter of this year, the data show. But the slowdown does not hint at a pause in activity or suggest activist investors are going soft, Rossman said. Corporate agitators, including Mantle Ridge, Ancora Holdings and Jana Partners have, as a group, forced bigger changes at companies in the first half of this year than a year ago, the data show. Settlements between activist investors and companies jumped 32% to 37 in the first half of 2025 and left activists with 86 board seats, marking a 16% increase. They won seats, often a measure of success for activists, at companies ranging from industrial gases maker Air Products and Chemicals to food processing company Lamb Weston. "As a group activists are having a strong year, winning settlements and board seats and managing to engage with a number of companies privately," Rossman said. Most activists continue to focus their attention on companies in the United States with 60 campaigns launched, down from 61 a year earlier. There were 37 campaigns in Japan, down from 51 a year ago. Activity in Europe declined by 17% to 24 campaigns launched in the first half compared with a year ago. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
