Find Your Activist Where You Find Your Favorite Podcasts on Apple and Spotify

Proxy fights and hostile takeovers are often ways companies and activists push the envelope and test new ways of communicating to shareholders and others, whether through the launch of websites, CEO videos and now animated videos on how to vote.

 

Axios’ Mike Flaherty and Kerry Flynn report that Elliott, the much feared activist that once sent mini video players to shareholders of Arconic during a proxy fight, is reverting to more soothing ways of reaching shareholders by launching a podcast in hopes that it will be another arrow in its quiver in its escalating fight with Southwest. The inaugural episode of "Stronger Southwest" featured Gregg Saretsky, former CEO of WestJet and one of Elliott’s eight nominees for Southwest’s board. “Acquired” it is not, but future episodes are meant to showcase the activists’ seven other nominees as Elliott pushes for a December 10th special shareholder meeting – the first major proxy battle it has launched since the bruising Arconic fight.    

 

Across the pond, London-based Bluebell Capital Partners is sticking with more traditional methods in its campaign against oil and gas giant BP. Bluebell sent a letter to both the BP board and the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority following a Reuters report that BP abandoned a target to cut oil-and-gas output by 2030. The activist has demanded that BP either confirm or deny the Reuters story and that failing to do so could breach listing rules regarding a company’s obligation to update the market on key price-sensitive information. BP has said it fully complies with its legal and regulatory obligations and that “the company’s direction remains the same.”

 

Next week is the 13D Active Passive Summit and we expect there will be much news in the world of activism and governance coming out of the event. 


Have a great weekend,

GPP team 

ACTIVISM

Reuters: Former Linde Executives Team Up with Mantle Ridge in Push for Changes at Air Products

Svea Herbst-Bayliss reports that two former top executives at Linde are joining activist investor Mantle Ridge in its fight against the multinational chemical company. The activist in pushing for more transparent succession planning, restructuring the board, improving capital allocation and overhauling the company's strategy. Read More

Yale Insights: What Critics of Pfizer Are Getting Wrong

Yale School of Management’s Jeff Sonnenfeld and Steven Tian look at Starboard’s campaign against the pharmaceutical giant and offer a 36-slide analysis as to why Starboard’s complaints are “simply not factual.” Read More

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

The Deal: Proxy Voting Presented as Political Problem

David Marcus covers the new book from Sullivan & Cromwell’s Sahand Moarefy that examines the rising power of institutional investors and advocates for the federal government to step in and regulate their use of proxy voting. Read More

Fortune CEO Daily: 29% of C-Suite Roles Are Now Held by Women

Concurrent with Fortune’s Most Power Women Summit, Diane Brady highlights new data that reveals slow but meaningful progress in the number of women in C-suite positions, which has now increased to 29% compared to just 17% in 2015. Read More

Re-Thinking The Hostility Towards Dual-Class Share Structures: When Dual-Class Shares Work Better

New analysis from Yale School of Management’s Jeff Sonnenfeld and Steven Tian reveals that despite ample criticism, dual-class shares offer plenty of advantages and on average outperform companies with single class shares in both the short and long-term. Read More

M&A

Financial Times: TPG & Blackstone Team Up to Bid for Eyecare Group Bausch + Lomb

TPG and Blackstone have put forth a joint bid for Canadian eyecare company Bausch + Lomb as it navigates a spinoff from its parent company Bausch Health. The $14 billion deal would result in one of the biggest buyouts of the year, write Oliver Barnes, Antoine Gara and James Fontanella-Khan. Read More

 

Reuters: Verizon Bid For Frontier Faces Investor Skepticism

After announcing Verizon’s $9.6 billion takeover last month, Frontier has faced resistance from major shareholders Glendon Capital and Cerberus, asserting that Verizon’s $38.50/share offer undervalues the telecom giant. Investors will have their say at the company’s annual meeting on November 13th. Read More

 

Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance: How Deals Die

Vanderbilt Law School professor Morgan Ricks looks at the “multitude” of factors that can cause a deal to break between signing and closing and what dealmakers can learn from these risks. Read More

 

The Wall Street Journal Private Equity Pro: New U.S. Merger Rules Would Weigh Heavily on Private Equity

Chris Cumming notes that antitrust lawyers are calling new requirements passed by the FTC to the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) process the most significant change in decades. The new proposals greatly expand the amount of information collected in the merger process, which some say will be a “substantial burden.” Read More

FROM OUR DESK TO YOURS



We here at GPP aim to provide cutting edge advice not just on corporate governance and activism but food, wine and New York life. This week we bring you Bridges, a new restaurant from alumnae of Estela and other great spots, that opened in Chinatown in (appropriately) the shadows of the East River bridges. Chef Sam Lawrence worked for Ignacio Mattos for many years; think Estela with a bit of Frenchette in it. Bridges opened just a few weeks ago, so we suggest trying it before it gets too popular.

 

If you are in fact unsuccessful finding a Resy for Bridges but you still want to toast a glass, perhaps you can snag a spot at La Fête du Champagne, a series of events that celebrate all things pétillant. More than 40 of Champagne’s finest producers will present their magnums and more at various hotspots around town. It’s the 10th anniversary of the Fête, and tickets for the New York events are selling out fast. GPPers, for one, don’t wait for special occasions to break out the good stuff!  

PEOPLE MOVES

  • Tim Buckley, former Chairman and CEO at Vanguard, joined Pfizer’s Board of Directors. He will serve on the Governance and Sustainability Committee and the Audit Committee. Read More
  • State Street CFO Eric Aboaf is leaving the financial services company to serve as S&P Global’s CFO starting February. Read More
  • Deutsche Bank is bringing on media and entertainment banker Aly Alibhai to run North America M&A. Alibhai was most recently at UBS. Read More
  • JPMorgan hired longtime Deutsche Bank healthcare dealmaker Trey Hanlan to expand its mid-cap investment banking group. Read More
UPCOMING EVENTS

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