Activism Archive

The number of companies targeted by an activist during the first half of the year was at its lowest level in more than six years, according to Insightia’s half-year shareholder activism review.   Between January 1 and June 30 this year, 518 companies were targeted by activist investors. This is a notable decrease compared to the first half of 2020, when 594 companies were...

As activist activity shows signs of picking up relative to last year, there’s scope for issuers to learn lessons from the forced adoption of one-to-many digital communications, advisers say. In 2020, shareholder activists pulled back from planned campaigns, with the fewest number of campaigns waged against public companies since 2015, according to data from Activist Insight. But that pent-up energy has been put toward campaigns this season, advisers say....

A ‘significant’ number of shareholders (20.7 percent) voted in support of a proposal calling on BP to set tougher emissions targets at its AGM yesterday. While this is a rejection of the proposal and far off a majority, it is more than double the 8.4 percent support garnered by the last proposal put forward at the company by climate activist Follow This in 2019. Follow This called on BP to publish short, medium and long-term targets to reduce emissions that are ...

Inspired by say-on-pay voting, a British activist hedge fund is calling on companies to publish a climate transition plan and give shareholders a vote on the contents. The Children’s Investment Fund (TCI), headed by billionaire investor Sir Christopher Hohn, wants hundreds of companies to hold say-on-climate votes within the next two years. So far, only a handful of companies have embraced the idea, but they include major names such as Unilever, Rio Tinto and Roy...