Where have all the shareholder activists gone? Campaigns slow amid market turmoil

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Insightia data shows that investors launched only 22 activist campaigns at U.S.-headquartered companies between May 20 and June 20

Activist investors intent on shaking up Corporate America may be getting cold feet as new data points to a slowdown of campaigns as markets gyrate amid fears of faster rate hikes, runaway inflation and geopolitical turmoil.

They often campaign for board seats, a change in CEO, a liquidation of assets or even a sale of the company. They, like many other investors, have been battered by tumbling stock markets that have been rattled by the highest inflation rates in decades, fears that central bankers will quickly end their easy money policies and concerns about global growth in the face of war in Ukraine.

Between Jan. 1 and June 22, activists launched 669 campaigns at U.S.-headquartered companies, compared with 503 campaigns launched during the same time in 2021, Insightia data shows. This year’s battles included fights for board seats at chemical company Huntsman Corp, retailer Kohls Corp, food distributor US Foods Holding Corp and toymaker Hasbro Inc.

In the last six months activists, who make their campaigns public, have increasingly asked for companies to sell off units or even put themselves up for sale, leaving bankers to say that the demands for an M&A component in campaigns have risen to roughly 50% now from about 30% several years ago.

 

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