Strategic Investing in European Large Caps

ERIC KNIGHT

CIO/CEO, Member of the Board of Directors
and of the Investment Committee

Europe has many high quality, but complex, large cap public companies that can deliver substantial unsuspected value through restructuring.

This value can be unlocked with even a small minority shareholding – but aggressive U.S. style proxy contests are not the way to achieve this.

Large cap equities offer liquidity and transparency that private equity cannot match but their governance is generally less effective. Supervised by Boards that are often unwilling or unable to challenge Management and are appointed by Shareholders who are poorly organized to take collective action, these companies are effectively “ownerless” and prone to underperforming.

This can be overcome by taking a proactive approach and enlisting the support of other shareholders and stakeholders whose interest are aligned, when required.

Knight Vinke has a 15 year track record of creating value in this more consensual way for very large institutional investors.