Activist investors: Here’s what you need to know about them and 4 famous Australian activists to watch out for

Hear the term ‘Activist investors’ and you might think of GetUp, the progressive activist group that forced Woolworths to hold an EGM in 2014 in an attempt to limit the maximum bets on poker machines to $1. Or perhaps even of ESG-focused fundies like Australian Ethical (ASX:AEF). The reality is a lot more complicated and we are going to delve into it in this article. We think if you haven’t thought about the term from the perspectives of the individuals we will name as famous activist investors, you’ll never think of that term in the same way again.

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Who are activist investors?

Activist investors are individuals or groups who purchase a large number of shares in a company with the intention of influencing its decisions and policies. They use their ownership stake to advocate for changes that they believe will increase the value of their investment and benefit all shareholders.

Activist investors not individual retail investors who group together, they are large institutional shareholders – often individuals and their firms. These investors often take an active role in the operations and management of the company, pushing for changes in areas such as corporate governance, financial performance, and strategic direction. They can be a powerful force in the business world, often making headlines with their high-profile campaigns and battles with company management.

One might consider Mike Cannon-Brookes to be an activist investor, at least during his time when he lobbied AGL (ASX:AGL) over its decarbonisation plans not being good enough. His lobbying was enough to get AGL investors to kill it, and the whole board to resign enmasse.

American examples of activist investors

We will mention a few more of the most famous and persistent Australian activist investors, but first let’s talk about some of the most famous on Wall St. One of them is Carl Icahn, one of the most famous not just because he has been involved in high-profile corporate battles, but also because he has occasionally been successful.

One was TWA in the 1980s, and another was his attempt to take over Time Warner in 2006, although this was unsuccessful. Icahn is known for his aggressive tactics and has been described as a “corporate raider” by some. He is also known for his ability to turn struggling companies around and increase their value, and also for some feuds with fellow investors, one being Nelson Peltz, who also has a reputation as an activist.

Sometimes, entire companies have a reputation for being activist investors. One of Elliot Investment Management that has made high-profile campaigns against Starbucks, Phillips, Pepsi Co AND Southwest in the last 2 years. Not all campaigns have been successful, and even some were partially so. As with all campaigns, it all boils down to being able to obtain support from fellow investors, convincing them that alternatives to the status quo are feasible and will achieve the results promised.

4 of the Most Famous Activist Investors in Australia

1. Gabriel Radzminski

Gabriel Radzminski heads a firm known as Sandon Capital. This firm has been in plenty of battles in the past, including Iluka, City Chic, Fleetwood, A2B and most famously, fund manager Magellan (ASX:MFG).

The latter was arguably the biggest, not just because Magellan was such a prominent company, but Sandon pushed against the plans of Magellan’s management to grow FUM to $100bn in 5 years and argued for it to return capital to shareholders, through the sale of its Barrenjoey and Finclear stakes. Sandon argued it would be a way to apologise for past wrong-doing and depict that its interest and those of shareholders were aligned. Although the AGM came and went without a return of capital in the form Sandon was suggesting, the company ditched its FUM ambition.

Sandon’s current battle is with Southern Cross Media (ASX:SXL). Southern Cross is merging with Seven West, and Radzyminski is lobbying against the deal for a number of reasons, but his biggest issue is that SXL is using a loophole to avoid a shareholder vote, namely by paying shares rather than in cash. Radzyminski declared the deal,’ epitomises Peter Lynch’s expression of “diworsification’. That’s not a typo, by the way. It was a humorous twist on the term ‘diversification’ to address companies excessively diversifying, specifically into unrelated businesses.

2. Simon Mawinny

Simon Mawhinney is the Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of Allan Gray Australia. Some would argue Allan Gray is more of a ‘patient, long-term’ investor rather than activist, but some of Allan Gray’s actions may qualify as activism. For instance, Allan Gray spoke out against the proposed takeover of Virgin Money by Nationwide. Simon Mawhinney said the deal was “likely to sell shareholders very short” and raised concerns about the lack of a member vote for Nationwide members.

Allan Gray was also vocal about calling for change at Lendlease (ASX:LLC), but was arguably overshadowed by Tanarra Capital’s John Wylie, not to mention Orora, where Mawhinney successfully got the company to add a provision to avoid takeovers where shares are issued from occurring without a shareholder vote. This followed Orora’s disastrous acquisition of French spirits maker Saverglass.

3. Gary Weiss

Gary Weiss is a veteran of the industry, and he also sits on the ARL Commission. But with Peter Vlandys running the show, Weiss is better known for his activism. Weiss’ latest target is Webjet, believing the company is not making the best use of its $100m surplus cash. He is trying to get his son Daniel and former Qantas executive Andrew Taylor onto the board.

Also, he invested in Ardent Leisure (ASX:ALG) and mounted a campaign to change its board (including giving him a seat) & overhaul its governance, citing underperformance. He took a gamble in arguing Ardent was wrong in positioning itself as well off by saying it had $76.1m in ‘core EBITDA’, and he was right when Ardent’s statutory accounts showed a $60m loss.

Why the gap? Because core EBITDA excludes many expenses, including pre opening expenses, losses on closures of bowling centres, sale and leaseback arrangements, business acquisition costs and restructuring expenses. The gap is unsurprising when one asks a second time in light of the above.

4. Geoff Wilson

Geoff Wilson’s investor activism is most prominent around policy changes, or proposed changes. He led a successful campaign against Labor’s proposed changes to franking credits and negative gearing in 2019, and has been vocal about the proposed $3m super tax. But Wilson and his firm, Wilson Asset Management, has also been vocal against certain companies, even if is mostly LICs. One case study was Templeton Growth Fund where his actions led to the fund losing its responsible entity status and ultimately merged with WAM Global.

Another is Keybridge where WAM Active acquired 45% of its shares, then pushed for the removal of certain directors (including CEO Nicholas Bolton and others), citing governance failures. He successfully arranged an EGM where the board was removed, and then won a court fight when Keybridge tried to challenge its validity.

Conclusion

Activist investors play a significant role in corporate governance and can have a major impact on the direction and success of companies. While they may be controversial at times, their actions are often driven by a desire to create value for shareholders and improve overall business performance. As such, they will continue to be important players in the world of finance and investing, and all other investors should keep an eye on them. Especially among some of the most prominent activist investors with a track record of forcing change.