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Returns to Shareholder Activism: Evidence from a Clinical Study of the Hermes UK Focus Fund

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Author Info

  • Marco Becht
  • Julian Franks
  • Colin Mayer
  • Stefano Rossi

Abstract

This article reports a unique analysis of private engagements by an activist fund. It is based on data made available to us by Hermes, the fund manager owned by the British Telecom Pension Scheme, on engagements with management in companies targeted by its UK Focus Fund. In contrast with most previous studies of activism, we report that the fund executes shareholder activism predominantly through private interventions that would be unobservable in studies purely relying on public information. The fund substantially outperforms benchmarks and we estimate that abnormal returns are largely associated with engagements rather than stock picking. The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Society for Financial Studies. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org., Oxford University Press.

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Bibliographic Info

Article provided by Society for Financial Studies in its journal The Review of Financial Studies.

Volume (Year): 22 (2009)
Issue (Month): 8 (August)
Pages: 3093-3129

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Handle: RePEc:oup:rfinst:v:22:y:2009:i:8:p:3093-3129

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Cited by:
  1. Bruno, Valentina & Claessens, Stijn, 2010. "Corporate governance and regulation: Can there be too much of a good thing?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 461-482, October.
  2. Alon Brav & Wei Jiang & Hyunseob Kim, 2012. "The Real Effects of Hedge Fund Activism: Productivity, Risk, and Product Market Competition," Working Papers 12-14, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
  3. Jacob Oded & Yu Wang, 2010. "On the different styles of large shareholders’ activism," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 229-267, June.
  4. Chris Mallin & Andrea Melis, 2012. "Shareholder rights, shareholder voting, and corporate performance," Journal of Management and Governance, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 171-176, May.
  5. Santella, Paolo & Baffi, Enrico & Drago, Carlo & Lattuca, Dino, 2008. "A Comparative Analysis of the Legal Obstacles to Institutional Investor Activism in Europe and in the US," MPRA Paper 8929, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  6. Illoong Kwon & Katherine Guthrie & Jan Sokolowsky, 2008. "On the Objective of Corporate Boards: Theory and Evidence," Discussion Papers 08-08, University at Albany, SUNY, Department of Economics.
  7. Alex Edmans & Vivian W. Fang & Emanuel Zur, 2011. "The Effect of Liquidity on Governance," NBER Working Papers 17567, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  8. Goergen, Marc & Renneboog, Luc, 2011. "Managerial compensation," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 1068-1077, September.
  9. Nicole Boyson & Robert Mooradian, 2011. "Corporate governance and hedge fund activism," Review of Derivatives Research, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 169-204, July.
  10. Renneboog, Luc & Ter Horst, Jenke & Zhang, Chendi, 2011. "Is ethical money financially smart? Nonfinancial attributes and money flows of socially responsible investment funds," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 562-588, October.
  11. Acharya, Viral V & Volpin, Paolo, 2008. "Corporate Governance Externalities," CEPR Discussion Papers 6627, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  12. Alon Brav & Wei Jiang & Hyunseob Kim, 2011. "The Real Effects of Hedge Fund Activism: Productivity, Risk, and Product Market Competition," NBER Working Papers 17517, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  13. Timothy A. Kruse & Kazunori Suzuki, 2012. "Steel Partners' activism efforts at United Industrial, Ronson, and BKF Capital: The good, the bad, and the ugly," Managerial Finance, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 38(6), pages 587-605, May.
  14. Renneboog, Luc & Szilagyi, Peter G., 2011. "The role of shareholder proposals in corporate governance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 167-188, February.
  15. Ayers, Benjamin C. & Ramalingegowda, Santhosh & Eric Yeung, P., 2011. "Hometown advantage: The effects of monitoring institution location on financial reporting discretion," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 41-61, June.

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