The biggest factor that led to settlements in an activist campaign was the activist’s reputation – whether they are known to be negative, hostile, or not – Institutional Investor reported. A recent study by Professor Margarethe Wiersema at the University of California, Irvine found that an activist fund that engaged in at least two proxy battles was 23 percent more likely to get its demands than one that hadn’t engaged in any proxy battles in its first three years.
The 13D Monitor Active-Passive Investor Summit went virtual this week and it brought together a large group of activists, advisors and investors for the first time since mid-March. The event began with Starboard Value announcing positions in Corteva Inc. and ON Semiconductor Corp., and ended with a Carl Icahn fireside chat.
Bloomberg Opinion’s Jared Dillian argues that while ESG investing may be having the intended effect of “raising the cost of capital for ‘bad’ companies and lowering it for good ones,” a closer look suggests that ESG investing is a bubble. Dillian cites unclear criteria and standards for ESG factors, coupled with the recent underperformance of COVID-19-impacted fossil fuel investments, as reasons to believe that ESG investing is a “short-lived phenomenon.”
Have a good weekend,
Joel
