|
Proxy season is well underway and activism activity is showing no signs of slowing down. New data from Barclays’ inaugural Q1 2023 Review of Shareholder Activism report revealed that global activism increased 14% from Q1 2022, totaling 83 campaigns. The FT’s Ortenca Aliaj points out that although smaller firms played a role in activity, such as Align Partners launching eight campaigns in South Korea, bigger players like Elliott, Carl Icahn and Nelson Peltz still accounted for much of what we’ve seen this year, which includes an uptick in M&A demands. This past quarter, 44% of campaigns had an M&A component, though board changes still led as the top demand. Jim Rossman, Barclays’ recently appointed global head of shareholder advisory, told The Deal’s Ron Orol that the current market has made M&A activism shift to a focus on divestitures of non-core businesses or dismantling M&A committees, like what was recently seen as a byproduct of activism at Salesforce.
Drilling down on M&A, Exxon Mobil made headlines this week after the Wall Street Journal reported that the oil and gas behemoth was in talks to acquire Pioneer Natural Resources in what would be the company’s largest deal since its megamerger with Mobil Corp. The Journal’s Benoît Morenne noted that this may be the tip of the spear for dealmaking among oil and gas companies, which are flush with cash after record earnings.
Meantime, Glencore, the mining giant, is digging for a deal after revising its $23 billion takeover bid for Teck Resources. Teck has rebuffed the hostile bid and is now calling for Glencore to sell its coal business if the Swiss miner wants talks to continue, as reported by the FT’s Leslie Hook, Harry Dempsey and Ivan Levingston. Elsewhere in mining, Newmont, which had to raise its takeover bid to $19.5 billion for Australian rival Newcrest seems to have done enough to please Newcrest’s largest shareholder, Allan Gray, which said it would back the deal pending any larger bids. “Expect the consolidation to continue as mining is a consumptive industry and companies need to focus on future growth to meet demand,” said Barrick CEO Mark Bristow Tuesday on CNBC.
Briefly, in the IPO world, Japanese conglomerate SoftBank intends to sign an agreement that will see its UK-based chip manufacturer ARM list on Nasdaq as early as this Fall, according to Leo Lewis and Kana Inagaki of the Financial Times. While the IPO market has sputtered since hitting record highs in 2021, a successful listing of ARM could serve as a spark for its resurgence. It’s worth noting that the target timing near the end of 2023 for the potential listing does align with some experts' thinking of when the deal market could again show signs of life.
Have a great weekend,
GPP
| 
