Hong Kong Bank Reaches Insurance Deal After Pressure from Elliott Management (The Wall Street Journal)
HONG KONG— Bank of East Asia Ltd. agreed to sell its insurance business to pan-Asian life insurer AIA Group Ltd., marking a milestone in one of the longest-running shareholder activism campaigns in the region. The Hong Kong-based bank said it would sell its BEA Life subsidiary for $650 million and enter an exclusive 15-year agreement under which the bank will distribute AIA’s life and long-term savings products via its 140-plus branches in Hong Kong and mainland China.
Tribune Publishing Board Recommends Shareholders Approve Alden Bid, But Gives Hotel Exec the OK to Pursue Financing for Higher Offer (Chicago Tribune)
Tribune Publishing’s board is recommending shareholders approve Alden Global Capital’s $633 million offer to buy the Chicago-based newspaper company, but gave a Maryland hotel executive the green light to pursue financing for a higher bid, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Tuesday. Alden, a New York-based hedge fund and Tribune Publishing’s largest shareholder with a 31.6% stake, reached an agreement last month to buy the rest of the company at $17.25 per share and take it private. The deal, which the company said should close in the second quarter, requires approval from two-thirds of Tribune Publishing’s other shareholders in a proxy vote to be scheduled.
ValueAct’s New CEO Mason Morfit Shows Hedge Fund Succession Can Work (Institutional Investor)
When Mason Morfit interviewed for the first investment analyst spot at hedge fund firm ValueAct Capital in 2000, shortly after its launch, the then 24-year-old was not too concerned about his lack of business school degree. “The firm had no assets under management, so it was a good fit,” he quipped in a June 24, 2019 speech at the Stanford Directors’ College.
Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock.com
LabCorp Launches Review Following Moves by Activist Jana (Bloomberg)
Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings, which has been pressed by an activist investor to make changes, said its board would launch a review of the company’s strategy because it believed its stock is undervalued. The lab-testing company has faced questions about the durability of its Covid-19 screening business and whether it should spin off its drug-development unit, Covance. LabCorp has hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. as its financial adviser, it said in a statement on Tuesday.
Activist-Backed Proposal for Toshiba Probe Received 58% of Shareholder Votes (Reuters)
TOKYO (Reuters) – About 58% of Toshiba Corp shareholders last week voted in favour of an independent probe into allegations that investors were pressured ahead of last year’s annual general meeting, a breakdown of the results showed on Tuesday. The win for Effissimo Capital Management, Toshiba’s biggest investor with a 9.9% stake, marked only the fourth time an activist shareholder motion has won approval in Japan and the first at a major household name.
