News in brief

05/03/23 • 16 min

Kieran Poole is joined by Insightia's Rebecca Sherratt, Antoinette Giblin, and Will Arnot to pick the most important stories of the month that you need to know about.
On the agenda are Carl Icahn’s campaign at Illumina, boomerang CEOs, and Talos Energy's vulnerability to activism.
Make sure to also subscribe to Diligent's The Corporate Director Podcast.

Previous Episode

What is it like taking on Fortune 500 companies?

Edgar Hernandez of The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) joins Kieran Poole to discuss taking on the likes of Coca-Cola, Netflix, and Amazon.
Edgar is assistant director of its department of strategic initiatives and has been at the firm since 2007.

Next Episode

Why is Europe such an activism hotbed?

Kieran Poole is joined by White & Case's Tom Matthews and Sonica Tolani as well as Insightia's Rebecca Sherratt to discuss Corporate Governance in Europe 2023.
Tom heads up the firm’s European shareholder activism practice, while Sonica is a specialist in public company M&A, ECM, and shareholder activism.
Among the top findings:
Emissions reporting takes centrestage: CSRD has ushered in a new era of ESG accountability, mandating European issuers with upwards of 250 employees annually report on sustainability policies and targets, including their Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, starting in 2025.
The cost-of-living crisis drives investor revolts: FTSE 350 executive pay hit record highs in 2022, with total CEO realized pay averaging 3.03 million pounds ($3.76m), compared to 2.1 million and 2.6 million pounds in 2020 and 2021, respectively.

Activists push for sales amid depressed stock valuations: Activist intentions have shifted from blocking deals to demanding the sale of long undervalued companies, at a time when interest rates and inflation are limiting other growth options. Fifteen companies faced demands for a sale and/or acquisition of a third-party last year, an increase from 13 in 2021, while the number of companies facing opposition to M&A transactions fell to 15 in 2022, from 29 in 2021.
Join the conversation about the report using the hashtag #InsightiaEurope23 on Twitter and LinkedIn.