Today, institutional investors are becoming ever more willing to publicly disagree with and even vote against incumbent boards on matters such as executive remuneration. This is due in large part to the increased pressure from asset owners for this to be a common occurrence. In a world where brand reputation is fast becoming the defining element for choosing a fund manager, being ‘seen’ to be more of an activist owner is fast becoming advantageous.

In response to this, we have written a report on how institutional investors can drive the message home to incumbent boards, co-shareholders and stakeholders:
 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• For a successful campaign, activist investors need audience-specific messaging and media access to communicate their investment thesis, as well as detailed media plans that anticipate target company responses
• Fellow stakeholder agreement is now critical in most activist campaigns. Without it, an activist has little or no leverage with the board of the targeted company; winning the narrative battle is therefore essential to an activist’s campaign
• Financial, operational and commercial understanding of what an investment thesis is based on needs to be accurate and precise in order to maintain credibility with investor bases
• Activists need to use more subtle methods than they have previously, sculpting and honing their messaging rather than aggressive stake-building; the move from unilateralism to building strategic consensus among other shareholders should provide more legitimate leverage in promoting their agenda for change

Click here to view our report