« […] If you ever needed a reminder about how M&A can be value destructive, look no further than Just Eat Takeaway’s $7.3bn acquisition of US rival Grubhub. The Netherlands-based company on Wednesday said it had to write down by €3bn the value of Grubhub, effectively admitting its consolidation strategy has failed. There are two […]

L’attaque est arrivée comme une machine bien huilée. La semaine dernière, le fonds d’investissement Elliott Management a présenté publiquement une longue liste de demandes pour remanier l’entreprise pétrolière Suncor. Ce type d’actionnariat activiste est moins courant au Canada, mais selon plusieurs experts, il pourrait être un bienfait pour l’entreprise et le secteur. Ces dernières années, […]

« The past six months have been marked by a profound upheaval that has accelerated the growing focus on both the purpose of the corporation and the role of the board in overseeing and leading the corporation in ways that promote sustainable business success. For a number of years, there has been a growing sense […]

« A thick hide is a necessary qualification for the job of activist short-seller. When Spruce Point Capital Management released a negative report on Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd. in late 2019, it prompted Yvan Allaire, the executive chair of the Institute for Governance of Private and Public Organizations, to fire back in the Financial Post: […]

« Mr. Ben Axler, Chief Investment Officer and founder of Spruce Point Capital responds (Financial Post, December 17th, 2019) to my article on short sellers of his kind (Financial Post, December 13th, 2019). He trots out the worn-out argument that short sellers only reveal the sordid truths hidden in the bosom of corporations. In short, […]

« A recent court case meant to clarify the definition of a corporation intensifies questions about the tax treatment of carried interest, a prized perk for private equity and hedge fund managers. The IRS argued for a broad definition of the term “corporation” in the case. But the legal issue that could come up in […]

« In September 2019, CEOs of large U.S. corporations have embraced with suspect enthusiasm the notion that a corporation’s purpose is broader than merely “creating shareholder value”. Why now after 30 years of obedience to the dogma of shareholder primacy and servile (but highly paid) attendance to the whims and wants of investment funds? Simply […]

« Institutional investors are howling for US public companies to focus more on the long-term.[1]  This is unsurprising. Long-term focused companies produce significantly better results over time, reporting far greater revenue growth with less volatility, far higher levels of economic profit, and greater total return to shareholders.[2] So if you are holding stock for a long time, […]

« Yvan Allaire, executive chair at the Institute for Governance of Private and Public Organizations, joins BNN Bloomberg to discuss « quarterly capitalism » in light of WestJet CEO Ed Sims’ warning on the destruction it brings to long-term company plans. » Pour voir l’entrevue, veuillez cliquer ici.  

L’activisme actionnarial est de plus en plus en vogue dans les grandes entreprises publiques, partout à l’échelle de la planète. Selon François Dauphin, ce phénomène mondial est dommageable à plusieurs titres. Son article soulève plusieurs exemples d’organisations qui ont été la cible d’attaques de la part de fonds de couverture (hedge funds). Les effets négatifs […]

« Activist hedge funds have become capital market and financial media darlings. The Economist famously called them “capitalism’s unlikely heroes” in a cover story, and the FT published an article saying we “should welcome” them. But they are utterly reviled by CEOs. And at best, their performance is ambiguous. The most comprehensive study of activist hedge fund performance that I have […]

« Pershing Square, an activist hedge fund owned and managed by William Ackman, began hostile maneuvers against the board of CP Rail in September 2011 and ended its association with CP in August 2016, having netted a profit of $2.6 billion for his fund. This Canadian saga, in many ways, an archetype of what hedge fund […]

C’est une série d’actualités relayées dans la presse économique et financière, ainsi qu’un article de Mme Diane Bérard, «L’ère de l’activisme», paru dans Les Affaires, qui m’amène à discuter des fonds spéculatifs ou fonds de couverture, plus connus sous le nom de hedge funds. Si les hedge funds ont été par le passé associés à […]

« Yvan Allaire has a great analysis of Dow Jones’ overreaction to Snapchat’s IPO and the dual class stock phenomenon in general: In July 2017, Dow Jones, goaded by the reaction to Snapchat having gone public with a class of shares without voting rights, announced that, after extensive consultation, it had decided to henceforth eliminate […]

Dissipons tout de suite un malentendu : Yvan Allaire n’a rien à voir avec le fameux rapport politique de 1991 qui porte son nom, ce que j’ai pu croire un moment. Un rapport qu’il ne tient pas en haute estime, d’ailleurs. Pour éliminer toute ambiguïté, à peine attablé, Yvan Allaire me fait, sourire en coin, un […]

L’IGOPP a lancé officiellement le 12 juin 2017, en présence de ses administrateurs, ses partenaires ainsi que de plusieurs invités de la communauté d’affaires, un nouveau livre intitulé « On becoming an «activist board»… In the age of activist shareholders » et  coécrit par son président exécutif du conseil, le professeur Yvan Allaire, son directeur de […]