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Returns to Shareholder Activism

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Author Info
Marco Becht
Julian Franks
Colin Mayer
Stefano Rossi

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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 (BTPS), on engagements with management in companies targeted by its U.K. Focus Fund (HUKFF). 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. We categorize the engagements and measure their impact on the returns of target companies and the fund. We find that Hermes frequently seeks and achieves significant changes in the company’s strategy including refocusing on the core business and returning cash to shareholders, and changes in the executive management including the replacement of the CEO or chairmen.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Oxford Financial Research Centre in its series OFRC Working Papers Series with number 2008fe07.

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Length: 52
Date of creation: 2008
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Handle: RePEc:sbs:wpsefe:2008fe07

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Web page: http://www.finance.ox.ac.uk
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Related research
Keywords: Shareholder activism; institutional investors; real authority;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Capital and Ownership Structure

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Alon Brav & Wei Jiang & Frank Partnoy & Randall Thomas, 2008. "Hedge Fund Activism, Corporate Governance, and Firm Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(4), pages 1729-1775, 08. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Franks, Julian & Mayer, Colin, 1996. "Hostile takeovers and the correction of managerial failure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 163-181, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Aghion, Philippe & Tirole, Jean, 1997. "Formal and Real Authority in Organizations," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(1), pages 1-29, February.
    Other versions:
  4. Alexander Dyck & Natalya Volchkova & Luigi Zingales, 2006. "The Corporate Governance Role of the Media: Evidence from Russia," NBER Working Papers 12525, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  5. Cocco, Joâo Francisco P.D. & Volpin, Paolo, 2005. "The Corporate Governance of Defined-Benefit Pension Plans: Evidence from the United Kingdom," CEPR Discussion Papers 4932, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Faccio, Mara & Lasfer, M. Ameziane, 2000. "Do occupational pension funds monitor companies in which they hold large stakes?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 71-110, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Franks, Julian R & Mayer, Colin & Renneboog, Luc, 2001. "Who Disciplines Management in Poorly Performing Companies?," CEPR Discussion Papers 2949, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Roberta Romano, 2000. "Less Is More: Making Shareholder Activism A Valued Mechanism Of Corporate Governance," Yale School of Management Working Papers ysm140, Yale School of Management. [Downloadable!]
  9. Marco Becht & J. Bradford DeLong, 2005. "Why Has There Been So Little Block Holding in America?," NBER Chapters, in: A History of Corporate Governance around the World: Family Business Groups to Professional Managers, pages 613-666 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
  10. Susan E.K. Christoffersen & Christopher C. Geczy & David K. Musto & Adam V. Reed, 2007. "Vote Trading and Information Aggregation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(6), pages 2897-2929, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Strickland, Deon & Wiles, Kenneth W. & Zenner, Marc, 1996. "A requiem for the USA Is small shareholder monitoring effective?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 319-338, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Alexander Dyck & Luigi Zingales, 2002. "The Corporate Governance Role of the Media," NBER Working Papers 9309, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  13. Guercio, Diane Del & Hawkins, Jennifer, 1999. "The motivation and impact of pension fund activism," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 293-340, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Lili Qiu, 2004. "Which Institutional Investors Monitor? Evidence from Acquisition Activity," Working Papers 2004-21, Brown University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  15. Jennifer E. Bethel & Stuart L. Gillan, 2002. "The Impact of the Institutional and Regulatory Environment on Shareholder Voting," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 31(4), Winter.
  16. Willard T. Carleton & James M. Nelson & Michael S. Weisbach, 1998. "The Influence of Institutions on Corporate Governance through Private Negotiations: Evidence from TIAA-CREF," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 53(4), pages 1335-1362, 08. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  17. Dedman, Elisabeth & Lin, Stephen W. -J., 2002. "Shareholder wealth effects of CEO departures: evidence from the UK," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 81-104, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Renneboog, L.D.R. & Horst, J.R. ter & Zhang, C., 2007. "The Price of Ethics: Evidence from Socially Responsible Mutual Funds," Discussion Paper 2007-29, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Cronqvist, Henrik & Fahlenbrach, Rüdiger, 2007. "Large Shareholders and Corporate Policies," SIFR Research Report Series 60, Institute for Financial Research. [Downloadable!]
  3. Neil Conway & Simon Deakin & Suzzanne J. Konzelmann & Héloïse Petit & Antoine Rebérioux & Frank Wilkinson, 2008. "The Influence of Stock Market Listing on Human Resource Managment: Evidence for France and Britain," ESRC Centre for Business Research - Working Papers wp366, ESRC Centre for Business Research. [Downloadable!]
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