Dan Loeb’s Third Point Builds Stake in Colgate, Sees Value in Pet Food Business in Potential Spinoff (CNBC)
Dan Loeb’s Third Point has built a sizeable stake in consumer giant Colgate-Palmolive, according to CNBC’s David Faber. Loeb sees hidden value in Colgate’s subsidiary, Hill’s Pet Nutrition, a pet food company, if it were spun off. The investor believes as a stand-alone business, Hill’s could deliver even faster growth and better margins, and could achieve a valuation close to $20 billion on its 2023 numbers, Loeb will say in a forthcoming investor letter, according to sources.
Impactive Capital Backs WEX to Use M&A to Bolster Value (Reuters)
Impactive Capital continues to engage with WEX Inc (WEX.N) to bolster the payments company’s fortunes, including using depressed valuations across the financial technology space to make beneficial acquisitions, the activist’s managing partner said on Tuesday. The firm has been a shareholder since early 2021 of Portland, Maine-based WEX, which provides payments solutions and virtual cards to businesses including travel, fleet and healthcare. The company continues to recover from being significantly impacted by restrictions on travel caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but despite improvements still trades at a discount to how its individual business units would be valued, Lauren Taylor Wolfe told the annual 13D Monitor Active-Passive Investor Summit in New York.
CQS and Napier Park Take On Elliott With Rival Bid for Matalan (Bloomberg)
CQS and Napier Park are among five funds preparing to take on Elliott Investment Management with a rival bid for struggling UK discount fashion retailer Matalan, according to people familiar with the matter. The funds hold a majority of the retailer’s £80 million ($91 million) junior debt and are fine-tuning a pitch that will include converting their debt into equity and fully repaying existing creditors, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the details of the transaction aren’t public.
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Salesforce, Splunk Shares Jump as Starboard Talks Stakes (The Wall Street Journal)
Shares in Salesforce and Splunk jumped Tuesday morning as Jeff Smith, the founder of activist hedge fund Starboard Value LP, discussed the firm’s stakes in the technology companies at a Tuesday conference. Salesforce shares rose more than 7% and Splunk was up nearly 4%. Mr. Smith outlined his thesis Tuesday morning at the 13D Monitor Active-Passive Investor Summit in New York. The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that Starboard has a nearly 5% stake in Splunk and plans to push the software-maker to take action to boost its stock price. Smith said Tuesday the firm believes Splunk’s new CEO Gary Steele, the founding CEO of Proofpoint Inc., is poised to improve its operations. He also said Splunk, which attracted suitors including Cisco Systems Inc. in the past, could be a takeover target.
Billionaire Hedge Fund Titan Seth Klarman Reveals How He Finds Investments That Meet His Standards and His 2 Favorite Principles of Investing (Business Insider)
An informal survey of the world’s greatest investors about who they most admire is likely to include one person who is probably not — by design — a household name: Seth Klarman. For nearly four decades, and largely out of the public eye, Seth has led Baupost, a Boston-based value-oriented hedge fund. During that period, the fund has had a compound annual total return of more than 15 percent with only four down years — an almost unmatched record over such an extended period.
