Activist investors are currently busy. With 255 new campaigns in 2024, hedge funds have launched more attacks on listed companies than ever before. On the basis of their comparatively small minority shareholdings, they called for supervisory board seats, the spin-off of parts of the group, or payouts to shareholders. The most active players worldwide were Elliott with 15 campaigns, as well as Starboard Value and Oasis. In Europe, activist behaviour was dominated by Bluebell with four campaigns, as well as Elliott and Gatemore Capital.

This was revealed by investment bank Lazard. According to the data, the first half of 2024 was particularly strong, with an increase of 11% compared to the previous year, while the second half of the year saw a decline of 11%.

First-time entities using their minority shareholdings to demand influence accounted for 47% of all activists, and 32% of campaigns. This was also a new high.

Companies from the industrial, technology and consumer goods sectors were the main targets of the campaigns. The attacks were primarily aimed at changing the composition of the supervisory board or bringing about M&A transactions – usually the spin-off of a division. In Europe, 39% of the campaigns were M&A related. The topics of capital allocation – for example dividends – as well as governance and strategy were also in the foreground.

Hedge funds in particular, such as Elliott, launched 78% of campaigns in 2024, which was below the five-year average of 82%. In Europe, there was a 10% decrease in campaign activity, though with the number of target companies remaining constant. In Germany, shareholder activist activity fell to an average level in 2024, following an increase in the previous year. An increase in activity is recorded for Switzerland. Swiss companies were the target of 10% of European campaigns, compared to a five-year average of 6%. According to Lazard, activism led to the short-term outperformance of share prices by an average of 200 basis points in the first five days after the start of the campaign.

The law firm Skadden expects activists to focus more on companies' US strategies. „In view of the global geopolitical challenges, activists will be watching the strategies of European industrial and energy companies in relation to the US particularly closely,“ says Holger Hofmeister, Partner in Skadden's Frankfurt office. "They will push for mergers and acquisitions or board changes if the measures are implemented too slowly, or the strategies are not coherent.’

Among the high-profile campaigns in 2024 are Trian Fund Management's push at Walt Disney, and Elliott's shareholder rebellions at coffee chain Starbucks and Southwest Airlines. Another example is Honeywell. The industrial conglomerate is examining the spin-off of its aerospace division, which Elliott is pushing for.

The CEOs of Starbucks, SmartRent and Wolfspeed all announced their resignations after activist investors stepped in.