Traditional active managers turn activist in 2019

This represented a 57% increase in activist demands launched by conventional active managers last year, communications consultancy Headland found. Five years ago, they launched just 13 activist demands. The research by Headland, based on examining UK markets data from Activist Insight, revealed that over the past ten years active managers have launched 147 governance-related campaigns - more than their pure play activist counterparts, which launched 117. Two other key demand groups - taking balance sheet action and changing the business strategy - were given broadly equal preference i...