Third Point Nominates Slate to Challenge Campbell Board (CNBC)
Activist investor Daniel Loeb‘s hedge fund Third Point announced its intention Friday to replace Campbell Soup’s entire board, the start of what is likely to be intense proxy battle between Loeb and the iconic soup company. Such a campaign would shine an unprecedented spotlight on the three descendants of Campbell’s founder who sit on the board. Two of them, Bennett Dorrance and Mary Alice Dorrance Malone, together hold a 33 percent stake in Campbell. The fiercely private siblings, whose father served as Campbell chairman, have resisted past pressure to sell the company.
Hedge Fund Elliott Calls for Fresh Revamp at Hyundai Motor Group (BRecorder.com)
SEOUL/NEW YORK: US activist hedge fund Elliott Management made fresh proposals to restructure Hyundai Motor Group on Friday, renewing pressure on the South Korean conglomerate months after forcing it to abandon its own plan. Elliott, which owns $1.5 billion worth of shares in three Hyundai group companies, called for a committee to review its proposals with other investors and experts, and said its attempts to discuss a new plan had been met with silence. Hyundai rejected the committee idea and added that it hoped “to share our thoughts on how to improve shareholder value with all of our shareholders in due course”.
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U.S. Activist SpringOwl Calls for Playtech to Spin Off Non-core Business (Reuters)
LONDON (Reuters) – Gambling software company Playtech should sell off its financial services businesses and focus on gaming, shareholder SpringOwl Asset Management’s founder Jason Ader said. Ader, whose fund has built a $100 million stake in Playtech, welcomed the announcement on Friday of the sale of its 10 percent stake in retail online trading platform Plus500. “We’re not advocating any fire sale or any rushed transaction, but over time we would like to see Playtech in the gaming business…and not have the distraction of other financial services holdings,” Ader told Reuters by telephone. “The company and its businesses and its assets are worth significantly more than where the stock is trading.”
Warren Buffett Recounts His Role During 2008 Financial Crisis (The Wall Street Journal)
During the worst financial crisis in decades, Warren Buffett never lost his faith that the U.S. economy would recover. “The factories don’t disappear, the farmland doesn’t disappear, the skills of the people don’t disappear” during a crisis, he told The Wall Street Journal recently. But “there’s no way of knowing, when you’re in a situation like we were in in the fall of 2008 or 2009, when or precisely how it will end.” Mr. Buffett, who is chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., sat down for a video interview with The Wall Street Journal to reflect on the causes and legacy of the financial crisis that hit its peak a decade ago.
