ALC - Q4

The COVID pandemic has driven unprecedented market disruptions, and in the midst of this volatility, activist investors may be looking for opportunities. In fact, activists have become much more sophisticated in the past year even prior to the pandemic. Last year alone, there were 143 unique hedge funds engaging in activism, and about 20% of them doing so for the first time. Since many companies may have new vulnerabilities, IROs need to be prepared for the new rules of the activist shareholder landscape since many of the traditional approaches to combating activism have changed or are not available. Read on to find out what you need to know.

There is an old Wall Street saying that the market takes the escalator to the top and elevator on the way down. We saw this play out in real-time in the first quarter as fears of the COVID-19 pandemic spread. In the media, we saw the emergence of the popular campaign, #Alonetogether, which intended to help slow the spread of COVID-19. The phrase would indicate that we are all in this together while working from home. Will this same phrase hold true for activists? Will they give companies the benefit of the doubt in this current environment?