Akzo Nobel Ends Feud With Elliott Management
Akzo Nobel, the Dutch paint and chemicals company, said on Wednesday that it had reached a truce with Elliott Management, ending a dispute that had been the latest example of an activist investor looking to reshape a major business.
Ackman: Interactions With ADP Chief Rodriguez 'Unfairly Characterized'
Pershing Square’s looming proxy battle with payroll processing firm Automatic Data Processing took a new turn Monday as the activist hedge fund said in an SEC filing that ADP had “unfairly characterized” the interactions between Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackman and ADP chief Carlos Rodriguez.
Why The World’s CEOs Fear Paul Singer
Aggressive, tenacious and litigious to a fault, Paul Singer may be the most feared activist investor in the world—by hedge fund rivals, companies and even countries. Singer’s Elliott Management Corp., which manages $34 billion of assets, has rarely been out of the headlines the past 18 months. And there’s little indication that will change soon. Singer has targeted the world’s biggest mining company, taken on Warren Buffett in a battle for Texas’s largest electricity distributor, ousted chief executive officers on both sides of the Atlantic and set off a chain of events that led to the impeachment of South Korea’s...
Ackman Is Still Battling For Board Seats At ADP
Activist investor Bill Ackman doesn’t take no, no and no way for answer. Despite getting a major league blow-off last week from payroll processor Automatic Data Processing, Ackman’s Pershing Square will seek three seats on the ADP board — including one for Ackman, the hedge fund said Monday in a regulatory filing.
Why The World’s CEOs Fear Paul Singer
Aggressive, tenacious and litigious to a fault, Paul Singer may be the most feared activist investor in the world—by hedge fund rivals, companies and even countries. Singer’s Elliott Management Corp., which manages $34 billion of assets, has rarely been out of the headlines the past 18 months. And there’s little indication that will change soon.
This Hedge Funder Wants Luxury Condos In Saks Fifth Avenue
Part of Saks Fifth Avenue’s Manhattan flagship store could be turned into luxury condominiums if one activist investor has his way. Jonathan Litt, who runs the hedge fund Land and Buildings, wrote a letter to Canadian retail giant Hudson’s Bay Company’s board Monday urging it to consider new directors, taking the public company private and selling off its subsidiary Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomberg reported. A Saks sale could also allow the company to turn the […]
Hedge Funds Create ‘Abnormal’ Returns In Short Run As Well As The Long
Are Activist Hedge Funds and Other Institutional Investors friends, enemies or frenemies? Additionally, so-called activist hedge funds are often considered a nuisance or even as a necessary evil, notably because of their focus on short-term gains.
Ackman's Pershing Square Said To Take Stake In ADP
Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management is reportedly taking a large position in payroll and benefits giant Automatic Data Processing, sending the company’s stock to a record high. The activist investor has been quietly building a position for some time, according to a Reuters article citing two unidentified individuals familiar with the matter. Since early this year, Ackman has cryptically referred to two new portfolio positions that have been working out very well, and signaled in early May that an unidentified new position in the fund accounted for approximately 5% of its capital. Ackman has also hinted at plans to...
Hedge Fund Marcato Demands That Rent-A-Center Sell Itself
BOSTON (Reuters) - Marcato Capital Management LP demanded on Tuesday that Rent-A-Center Inc start the process of selling itself or the activist hedge fund threatened to work to throw out board members up for re-election at next year's annual meeting. The San Francisco-based investment firm, fresh off a victory at Buffalo Wild Wings Inc, is now throwing its weight behind hedge fund Engaged Capital, which for months has been urging Rent-A-Center to sell itself, arguing that an overhaul of the company could be best achieved in the hands of private owners. In a sharply worded letter, dated...
Activist Hedge Funds Pull Hard On The M&A Lever
<p>Of all the demands that activist hedge funds make, one has emerged as a clear favorite over the past year: asking the management of a company they target to put up the "for sale" sign.</p>
<p>Heady valuations have made the windfall from a sale too hard to resist for dissident shareholders, turning what used to be a fall-back option in past campaigns into preferred strategy, and prompting a slew of takeovers in the process.</p>