Sloane & Company senior leaders were recently quoted on the future of investor activism trends, in a piece titled, “Power Grab — A Toss-Up For Activist Shareholders And Company Boards.”
[Excerpt]: According to Elliot Sloane, founder and advisor of Sloane & Company, while 2016 was considered a relatively challenging year for activists, there is still a significant number of activists who believe they may improve returns given the right targets. “We may even see several situations where an activist was willing to settle for a board seat or two last year or in 2015, but this season targets the company again if the performance hasn’t been there and they think more change is needed.”
While the second-round approach to activist campaigns may seem aggressive, Sloane’s colleague Dan Zacchei, managing director of Sloane & Company, believes we will also continue to see activists move toward more “constructive” engagement going into 2017. “That has been the trend for some time now, particularly when you talk about the largest, most well-known activists,” he explains. “But as dissidents continue to go down-market for low and mid-cap opportunities, you will still see a decent number of proxy fights that are publicly aggressive and far from friendly.”