TheBateman schreef op 10 mei 2017 22:46:
blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2017/05/10/tw...Never let it be said fund management and rhetoric don’t mix.
Incensed by European paint group Akzo Nobel’s failure to engage with the takeover offer of its U.S. peer PPG, Roger de Bree of Connecticut-based value boutique Tweedy, Browne penned a red-blooded, purple-prosed letter to Akzo’s chairman Antony Burgmans last week. It was made public this week, following yet another rejection of PPG’s overtures by Akzo on Monday.
“Being shareholders for 25 years has unfortunately not been a fruitful experience and our patience is wearing thin… Had we bought ‘reasonably priced’ PPG shares instead of ‘cheap’ Akzo Nobel shares in 1992, the people who have entrusted their savings and pensions to us would today have 50% more money.” Akzo’s managers “dutifully and loudly prayed at the altars of ‘shareholder value’ and ‘growth,’ but the results unfortunately didn’t follow. Real progress beats talk on every occasion,” he fulminated.
Akzo’s largest shareholder, Causeway Capital, also has written to Mr Burgmans urging him to engage with PPG. More recently, however, it has vented its frustration more quietly, and more conventionally. According to FactSet, it sold 4.2 million shares last month, bringing its position below 5%.
Causeway got a better price than it would have done a few months ago. Somehow, though, that doesn’t feel like “real progress” either.