In the latest development regarding Richard McGuire‘s Marcato Capital Management and the recent target of its activism, Sothebys (NYSE:BID), the $3.19 billion global art business company has agreed to provide Marcato with access to the Redacted Pages from the case Third Point LLC v. Ruprecht, according to a filing with the SEC. Late last month, Marcato acquired an additional 1.5 million shares of Sothebys (NYSE:BID) to take its holding to 6.57 million shares. The stake represents 9.46% of the company’s outstanding common stock.
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Founded in 2010, Marcato invests in small and mid-sized companies. Richard McGuire, the MBA from Harvard University, worked at Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square before he set up his own fund. Currently, Marcato has about $3.83 billion worth of assets under management, while the market value of its public equity portfolio stood at $2.70 billion at the end of March. The finance and consumer discretionary sectors contributed 27% and 33% respectively to the above portfolio value. The top equity holdings included Bank of New York Mellon Corp (NYSE:BK), Lear Corporation (NYSE:LEA), and NCR Corporation (NYSE:NCR), which we’ll discuss later.
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Previously, Marcato filed a Notice of Challenge on May 29 whereby the fund challenged the confidential treatment of the legal proceedings of the above mentioned case. However, Marcato agreed to withdraw the Notice following an agreement with Sothebys on June 5, providing it confidential access to the Redacted Pages. Marcato is the second activist that Sothebys is facing, the first one being Third Point’s Dan Loeb, who ended up winning three board seats last year. However, Marcato is still unsatisfied with the company’s performance and in a letter sent to Sothebys in February, it demanded an immediate $500 million share repurchase program and the replacement of the company’s chief financial officer. So far this year, Sothebys (NYSE:BID)’s stock has appreciated by 7.32%. Loeb’s Third Point is the largest stockholder of Sothebys, holding 6.65 million shares valued at $281.03 million.
