With Crowding in U.S. Market, Activist Investors Look to Europe
Eleazer Klein, a partner at Schulte Roth & Zabel who oversees
that law firm’s global shareholder activism group, said, “A lot of the share ownership is in the hands of people who don’t think the same way that U. S. institutions think.”
Many companies that are listed in Europe and in Asia have one large shareholder
that is either a family or the government, something that is less common in the United States, Mr. Klein said.
Once seen as a small group of loudmouth know-it-alls
and viewed with suspicion by big institutional shareholders like state pension funds, in recent years, activist investors like Mr. Peltz and William A. Ackman have at times been welcomed by these same shareholders and seen as a positive force for change in a recalcitrant company.
With swelling coffers — activists now manage $121 billion on behalf of private investors, pension funds
and sovereign wealth funds — and a growing number of competitors in the United States, some activists are finding more opportunities abroad than at home.
By taking a $3.5 billion stake, including options — his biggest wager to date — Mr. Loeb’s $17.5 billion hedge fund Third Point is betting
that Nestlé can rev up its growth if it listens to Third Point’s proposals, which include selling off Nestlé’s stake in L’Oréal.
By ALEXANDRA STEVENSON and MICHAEL J. de la MERCEDJUNE 26, 2017
Activist investors — money managers who seek to shake up a company’s strategy in search of huge paydays — have been growing in size
and power in the United States, bending the knees of even the biggest corporate titans.
