|
H Partners has lost patience with Harley Davidson. As reported by WSJ’s Lauren Thomas and John Keilman, the company is facing down New York-based hedge fund H Partners, which is waging a vote “WITHHOLD” campaign against three of the company’s incumbent directors, including CEO and Chairman Jochen Zeitz. H Partners owns roughly 9% of Harley Davidson and held a seat on its board until just last week. On April 9, H Partners’ representative in the motorcycle maker’s board room Jared Dourdeville abruptly resigned.
H Partners won’t be able to put forth a slate of directors given Harley Davidson’s nomination window closed last month, running a campaign that they’ve dubbed “Free the Eagle.”
Meanwhile, Bill Ackman sent shares of Hertz for a ride after disclosing a stake in the car-rental giant. Hertz stock soared north of 40% after Ackman revealed Pershing Square had accumulated 19.8% ownership of the company while the company’s bonds were among the biggest gainers in the high-yield market on Thursday. Ackman backed CEO Gil West and his management team in a post on X explaining his investment rationale, and a strategy to maximize Hertz’s profitability and rental fleet efficiency. Ackman even posed the idea of an AV partnership with another one of Pershing’s large investments, Uber.
The behavior and tactics of activists are reviewed in a paper by Wolf-George Ringe that traces the history of shareholder activism from the early corporate raiders to the rise in influence of institutional investors to the sophisticated campaigns run by “institutional” activists. “What began in the 1980s as a brash and often combative movement led by so-called corporate raiders has matured into a sophisticated, globally attuned, and strategically agile phenomenon,” Ringe writes in Columbia Law School’s Blue Sky blog. “The future of shareholder activism will be defined by those who can build credible coalitions, balance short-term pressures with long-term goals, and move fluidly across borders and business cultures.”
Have a great weekend and Happy Easter,
GPP
| 
