|
For insurgents who like to shake things up in the corporate world, there is no friendlier news than Donald J. Trump being re-elected as U.S. President, sending stocks rallying on expectations of an ebullient era of dealmaking and a growing economy. President Trump is known to be pals with Nelson Peltz, Carl Icahn, Ike Perlmutter, hedge fund kingpins such as John Paulson, Scott Bessent and other Wall Street titans. DealBook and the FT are reporting that Paulson and Bessent are top picks for Treasury, though the FT noted that it may be premature for Bessent to be measuring drapes at 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Advisors and activists have found common ground following the election, as both anticipate a surge in dealmaking, M&A activity, and activism. Jim Rossman at Barclays expects a more robust 2025 for M&A and higher levels of M&A activism while activist investor Carl Icahn predicts dealmaking will “skyrocket” with Trump as a result of loosened antitrust regulation. But activists are nothing if not value investors, and with equities trading at all-time highs following the election, we’ll have to see whether they can find any cheap targets as we close in on the proxy nomination window season opening.
Speaking of elections, AllianceBernstein’s Bob Herr and Luke Pryor examined the impact of electing age-diverse boards, finding that 70% of directors within S&P 500 companies are baby boomers, while only 5% of directors are under the age of 50. When linking multigenerational boards and share prices, Herr and Pryor found that multigenerational boards often deliver stronger investment performance than their monogenerational counterparts over the past several years.
Next week, stay tuned for insights from the Berkeley Law confab in SF where Steve Lipin will join Paul Hastings partner Sean Donahue, Cooley partner Jamie Leigh, and Morgan Stanley’s David Rosewater in a panel mixing it up on navigating shareholder activism.
Have a great weekend,
GPP Team
| 
