文章來源：《經(jīng)濟學(xué)人》May 27th 2023 期 Leaders 欄目 Investor activism

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Little scares the?C-suite?like shareholder activism.?Bosses stay awake worrying about a call, a letter or a 100-page presentation in which a hedge fund?outlines?the depths of their?ineptitude.?At the start of the year executives were especially on edge.?During this year’s annual “proxy season”—a succession of shareholder meetings—they have mostly avoided votes on dissident nominees to their boards.?Nevertheless in recent months some of the world’s largest firms—including Alphabet, Bayer, Disney and Salesforce—have had to?tussle?with activists, who are increasingly focused on the biggest companies.?On May 25th, as we published this article, the battle between Carl Icahn, a prominent activist, and Illumina, a genomics giant, was set to?come to a head.

沒有什么比激進股東更令高管們害怕的了。老板們睡不著覺，擔(dān)心一個電話、一封信或一份長達100頁的報告，因為報告中對沖基金會勾勒出他們的無能形象。今年年初，高管們尤為緊張。在今年的年度 "代理季"--即一系列股東大會--他們大多會避免對持不同意見的董事會候選人進行投票。然而，近幾個月來，世界上一些巨頭公司--包括Alphabet、拜耳、迪士尼和Salesforce--不得不與越來越關(guān)注大公司的激進人士發(fā)生爭執(zhí)。5月25日，當(dāng)我們發(fā)表這篇文章時，著名激進投資家卡爾.伊坎與基因組學(xué)巨頭Illumina之間的斗爭即將達到白熱化狀態(tài)。

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Activist hedge funds are often seen as villains who are nasty, brutish and focused on the short term. Sometimes?the shoe fits.?But more often activists are playing a role that is essential for shareholder capitalism. For several reasons, their campaigns are increasingly important.

激進的對沖基金通常被視為惡棍，他們卑鄙、野蠻、只關(guān)注短期利益。有時候，這符合他們的形象。但更多時候，激進投資者扮演的角色對股東資本主義至關(guān)重要。以下幾個原因表明他們的活動越來越重要。

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One is the rise of passive investing, which attempts to replicate the returns of an index rather than surpass them.?Only one in three dollars invested by institutions in America’s thousand largest public companies is actively allocated, according to Man Group, an investment firm.?The biggest passive asset-managers, such as BlackRock, charge low fees and run lean investment-stewardship teams which are not designed to spot empire-building bosses or lazy boards.?The result is an increasingly idle corporate?electorate.?Efforts to enfranchise the ultimate owners of funds are unlikely to solve the problem.?They typically want to earn returns but leave the decision-making to somebody else.

一是被動投資的興起，這種方式試圖復(fù)制大盤指數(shù)的回報率而不是超越它們。根據(jù)投資公司Man Group的數(shù)據(jù)，機構(gòu)投資于美國最大的 1000 家上市公司的資金中，只有1/3的資金是主動投資。最大的被動資產(chǎn)管理公司（如貝萊德）收取較低的費用，有一支精簡的投資管理團隊，這些設(shè)計目的不是為了發(fā)現(xiàn)建立帝國的老板或懶惰的董事會。被動投資的結(jié)果是越來越多的企業(yè)選民會無所事事。賦予基金最終所有者權(quán)利的努力不太可能解決這個問題。他們通常想賺取回報，但把決策權(quán)留給別人。

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There are other channels by which bosses’?feet might be held to the fire.?Since the 1980s leveraged buy-outs by private-equity firms have been a persistent threat to underperforming executives.?The best way to deter a hostile takeover is to raise your company’s share price.?Today, however, the buy-out industry is?roiling from the effects of?higher interest rates, and is unlikely to recover fully for some time.

還有其他渠道會給老板們施壓。自1980年代以來，私募股權(quán)公司的杠桿收購一直對業(yè)績不佳的高管構(gòu)成威脅。阻止惡意收購的最好方法是提高公司的股價。然而，如今，收購行業(yè)正因利率上升的影響而自身難保，且在一段時間內(nèi)不太可能完全恢復(fù)。

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While the routes by which managers are?held to account?have shrunk, the need to boost profits by applying discipline has grown.?When interest rates were low, large technology firms hired aggressively and expanded into?peripheral?lines of business. Now profits are more important than growth.?Over the past decade the demand for managers to respond to environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns has also grown.?Some shareholders campaign for ESG—as is their right—but the danger of firms losing focus and wasting money as they are drawn into politics has increased.

盡管追究資金管理者責(zé)任的途徑減少了，但通過遵守紀(jì)律來提高利潤的需求卻增加了。當(dāng)利率較低時，大型技術(shù)公司積極招聘，并向外圍業(yè)務(wù)領(lǐng)域擴張?，F(xiàn)在，利潤比增長更重要。在過去的十年里，對管理者回應(yīng)環(huán)境、社會和治理（ESG）問題的要求也在增長。一些股東為ESG開展活動--這是他們的權(quán)利--但公司因卷入政治而失去焦點和資金打水漂的風(fēng)險也在增加。

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In such an environment the presence of activists is a welcome reminder that it is owners, not managers, in whose interest firms should be run.?And because dealmaking is down, activists will be more likely to improve a firm’s operations than force it to sell itself in search of a quick buck.?That should?assuage?the fears of those who see activists as corporate cowboys rather than drivers of efficiency.

在這樣的環(huán)境中，激進人士的出現(xiàn)值得歡迎，即公司的運營應(yīng)該符合所有者的利益，而不是管理者的利益。而且由于交易減少，激進投資者更有可能改善公司的運營，而不是強迫出售公司本身來賺快錢。這應(yīng)該有助于減輕一些人的擔(dān)憂，因為這些人總認(rèn)為激進人士只是企業(yè)投機者而非效率推動者。

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Fortunately, the job of activists is getting easier.?New rules that came into force in America last September should make it simpler for them to obtain board seats by letting shareholders vote for candidates individually, rather than as a?bloc.?The wave of?nail-biting?shareholder votes some expected to follow immediately has not yet materialised.?But more battles between activists and complacent managers would be no bad thing.

幸運的是，激進投資者的工作正變得越來越容易。去年9月在美國生效的新規(guī)則應(yīng)使他們更容易獲得董事會席位，即股東可以對候選人進行單獨投票，而不是作為一個集團投票。一些人預(yù)測的隨后會出現(xiàn)的一波股東投票潮緊張場面尚未出現(xiàn)。但激進投資者與自滿的經(jīng)理人之間多發(fā)生點爭執(zhí)并不是什么壞事。