Tue, Mar 19, 2024
A A A
Welcome Guest
Free Trial RSS pod
Get FREE trial access to our award winning publications
Alternative Market Briefing

Other voices: Game of unknowns for business in 2016

Friday, January 15, 2016

By IMD Professor Nuno Fernandes

As Game of Thrones fans know, "winter is coming" in the new episodes slated for 2016, and with it a season of uncertainty. The outlook for the show’s Seven Kingdoms of Westeros is very similar to that of the current world economy and a lot of big questions remain as we ring in the New Year.

Will Europe get its act together and finally grow? Are activist investors going to continue to dominate? Will mergers and acquisitions lead to success or failure? Are unicorns on the road to extinction?

Here are my main predictions for 2016:

Activists on the rise

In 2015 hundreds of companies worldwide, like General Motors, Dow Chemical, Nestlé, Xerox or Mondelez, were subject to so-called activist investors.

This trend will continue in 2016. Shareholder activists often purchase minority shares of publicly listed companies, arguing that the companies are mismanaged, and propose ideas to enhance shareholder value. They later sell their shares at a higher price.

The firms that activists target tend to underperform relative to their industry. Due to their aggressive attitude toward management and hostile approaches to short-term profit making, they are perceived negatively as "corporate raiders," "green mailers" or "asset strippers".

Today, there are at least 10 activist funds managing over $10 billion each. They use their firepower to actively influence the performance or governance of publicly-traded companies. An......................

To view our full article Click here

Previous Opalesque Exclusives                                  
Previous Other Voices                                               
Access Alternative Market Briefing

 



  • Top Forwarded
  • Top Tracked
  • Top Searched
  1. KKR raises $6.4bn for the largest pan-Asia infrastructure fund[more]

    Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia: The New York-based global investment firm KKR has raised a record $6.4bn for its second Asia-focused infrastructure fund, underlining investors' continued appetite for private markets. According to a media release from the alternative assets manager, the figure top

  2. Bucking the trend, top hedge fund makes plans for a second SPAC[more]

    From Institutional Investor: SPACs aren't dead. At least not to the folks at Cormorant Asset Management. The life sciences firm, whose hedge fund topped its peers in 2023, is confident it will match the success of its first blank-check company. Last week, the life sciences and biopharma speciali

  3. Benefit Street Partners closes fifth fund on $4.7 billion[more]

    Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: Benefit Street Partners has closed its fifth flagship direct lending vehicle, BSP Debt Fund V, with $4.7 billion of investable capital across the strategy. Benefit Street invests primarily in privately originated, floating rate, senior secured loans. The fun

  4. 4 hedge fund themes that are working in 2024[more]

    From The Street: A poor earnings report from Tesla (TSLA) has not hurt the indexes on Thursday. The decline in Tesla stock, which is losing its position in the Magnificent Seven pantheon, is more than offset by strong earnings from IBM (IBM) and ServiceNow (NOW) . In addition, the much higher-t

  5. Opalesque Exclusive: A global macro fund eyes opportunities in bonds[more]

    Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York for New Managers: Munich-based ThirdYear Capital rebounded in 2023, following a tough year for global macro. The firm's flagship ART Global Macro strategy finished the year up 1