Institutional Shareholder Activism


Book Description

First Published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.




Institutional Activism in Corporate Governance


Book Description

Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, this book examines whether qualified foreign institutional investors (QFIIs), through their shareholder activism, have a meaningful positive impact on the corporate governance of firms listed on the mainland Chinese stock market. Capital flows into and out of China are still subject to tight controls, and the QFII scheme is one important avenue through which QFIIs can become invested in the Chinese stock market. This book is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in learning about ways to invest in one of the world’s largest economies. Wang discusses in depth what specific opportunities, challenges and restrictions to expect in the process, and how investing in China differs from investing in countries with a more open capital account.




Institutional Investor Activism


Book Description

The past two decades has witnessed unprecedented changes in the corporate governance landscape in Europe, the US and Asia. Across many countries, activist investors have pursued engagements with management of target companies. More recently, the role of the hostile activist shareholder has been taken up by a set of hedge funds. Hedge fund activism is characterized by mergers and corporate restructuring, replacement of management and board members, proxy voting, and lobbying of management. These investors target and research companies, take large positions in `their stock, criticize their business plans and governance practices, and confront their managers, demanding action enhancing shareholder value. This book analyses the impact of activists on the companies that they invest, the effects on shareholders and on activists funds themselves. Chapters examine such topic as investors' strategic approaches, the financial returns they produce, and the regulatory frameworks within which they operate. The chapters also provide historical context, both of activist investment and institutional shareholder passivity. The volume facilitates a comparison between the US and the EU, juxtaposing not only regulatory patterns but investment styles.




Hedge Fund Activism


Book Description

Hedge Fund Activism begins with a brief outline of the research literature and describes datasets on hedge fund activism.




The Oxford Handbook of Corporate Law and Governance


Book Description

Corporate law and governance are at the forefront of regulatory activities worldwide, and subject to increasing public attention in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis. Comprehensively referencing the key debates, the Handbook provides a much-needed framework for understanding the aims and methods of legal research in the field.




Understanding Institutional Shareholder Activism


Book Description

Institutional shareholder participation has long been considered as vital to good corporate governance yet its potential does not seem to have been realized. The recent banking crisis exposed the passivity of some institutional shareholders, many of whom appear to have chosen to sell their stakes in the banks rather than intervene or challenge the board when they realized the strategies followed by the banks were excessively risky. Institutional shareholders’ role to scrutinize and monitor the decisions of boards and executive management in the banking sector in the UK is considered by many to be a failure, resulting in the phenomenon of ‘ownerless corporations’, as described by Lord Myners. In China, despite the fast rising of institutional investment in the securities market, institutional shareholders have not yet played a contributory role in monitoring corporate managers in listed companies. Drawing on empirical evidence this book seeks to systematically analyses institutional shareholders’ incentives to activism to explain when and why shareholder activism will occur. The book puts forward a model which explains the factors that determine institutional shareholders’ propensity for activism. The model both elaborates the collective benefits of activism as a means of achieving managerial accountability asks whether and when shareholder activism is rational for any individual shareholder. The book then goes to on to apply these finding to both the UK and China in order to explain the varying levels of shareholder activism in each jurisdiction. The book is the first to take an in-depth look at institutional share-holder activism in China providing prescriptions to promote greater shareholder engagement and exploring the potential it holds for improving corporate governance in the region.




The Foundations and Anatomy of Shareholder Activism


Book Description

The Foundations and Anatomy of Shareholder Activism examines the landscape of contemporary shareholder activism in the UK. The book focuses on minority shareholder activism in publicly listed companies. It argues that contemporary shareholder activism in the UK is dominated by two groups; one, the institutional shareholders whose shareholder activism is largely seen as a driving force for good corporate governance, and two, the hedge funds whose shareholder activism is based on value extraction and exit. The book provides a detailed examination of both types of shareholder activism, and discusses critically the nature of, motivations for and consequences following both types of shareholder activism. The book then locates both types of shareholder activism in the theory of the company and the fabric of company law, and argues that institutional shareholder activism based on exercising a voice at general meetings is well supported in theory and law. The call for institutions to engage in more informal forms of activism in the name of 'stewardship' may bring about challenges to the current patterns of activism that institutions engage in. The book argues, however, that a more cautious view of hedge fund activism and the pattern of value extraction and exit should be taken. More empirical evidence is likely to be necessary, however, to weigh up the long terms benefits and costs of hedge fund activism.







The Influence of Institutional Investors on Corporate Management and Corporate Governance in Germany


Book Description

Diploma Thesis from the year 2008 in the subject Business economics - Law, grade: 1,3, Technical University of Chemnitz, language: English, abstract: Corporate management and corporate governance are becoming more and more crucial in today’s successful economies. With the increasing relevance of capital markets this subject comes more into the focus of the public. Particularly, the fast growing importance of institutional investors is a key factor which helps to explain the changing attitude of managers towards shareholders and corporate governance. In conjunction with the German capital market, a wide variety of mismanagement in German public limited companies has revealed shortfalls of German top-management and corporate control in the last decade. This development was of fundamental importance for the development of the German Corporate Governance Code. Hence, the basic underlying of corporate governance can be attributed to a conflict between the management of a listed corporation and its owners. More precisely, this conflict arises because the management does not adequately comprise the interests of shareholders. In Germany, assets under management of professional investors have increased at 92 percent from 1990 to 2001.1 In addition, a growing administration of private savings by professional fund managers as well as the intensified exercise of influence by institutional investors on corporate governance and corporate management respectively corporate strategy is observable. Similarly, a growing importance of institutional investors could be observed in the United Kingdom as well as in the United States. Within academic literature, the issue of activism by institutional investors in Germany is analyzed little, so far. Furthermore, there are only a few surveys on the outcome of the influence by institutional investors on corporate management. Therefore, this thesis aims to answer the following questions: 1. How was the development of shareholder activism in Germany and how can it be characterized and explained? 2. Is shareholder activism a superior tool in relation to the market of corporate control to solve the principal-agent problem? 3. What do institutional investors demand from German corporations and in particular from corporate management? 4. Which options do institutional investors have to influence corporate management? 5. How are these options for activism covered by the German Corporate Governance Code and the German legal framework? 6. What is the optimum corporate governance from an institutional investor’s angle? 7. What is the empirical outcome?