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经济学人下载:欧洲的激进主义 对冲基金(上)

2017-11-01来源:Economist

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Activism in Europe: Leading from behind
欧洲的激进主义:后来居上

A quiet activist hedge fund finds success behind the scenes.
一家低调的激进对冲基金在幕后取得成功。

“Sclerotic companies abound in Europe,” says Christer Gardell, co-founder and managing partner of Cevian Capital, an activist hedge fund based in Sweden.
总部设在瑞典的激进维权投资基金(Cevian Capital)的联合创始人兼管理合伙人嘉戴尔(Christer Gardell)说:“公司的僵化在欧洲随处可见。”

That is an uncommonly pugnacious statement for a firm that operates behind the scenes and uses public pressure as a last resort.
对于一个在幕后经营并以公共的压力为最后手段的公司来说,这是一个异常好战的声明。

Unlike its louder American peers, such as Bill Ackman's Pershing Square, Paul Singer's Elliott Management or Dan Loeb's Third Point, Cevian has never written a pointed open letter to a chief executive or waged a proxy battle (although Carl Icahn, an activist who has been known to call bosses “morons”, is one of its investors).
不像比尔·阿克曼的潘兴广场,保罗·辛格尔的艾略特管理公司以及丹尼尔·洛布的第三点管理公司那些大名鼎鼎的美国同行们一样,Cevian从未向首席执行官写过一封明确的公开信或发起代理战(尽管卡尔·伊坎,一位以称老板为“蠢货”而出名的活动家,是其投资者之一)。

Its calm approach seems to suit corporate Europe.
其冷静方法似乎适合欧洲企业。

Cevian is the region's largest activist fund, and one of the world's biggest, with over $15.4bn in assets.
Cevian是该地区最大的维权基金,也是世界上最大的维权基金之一,拥有超过154亿美元的资产。

It was founded by Mr Gardell and Lars Forberg in Stockholm in 2002; both still run it.
它由嘉戴尔和拉尔斯·福伯格两位于2002年在斯德哥尔摩创立的;两位现在仍掌管着它。

Its “constructive” activism, focusing on only a dozen companies at a time, goes back to the founders' time as chief executive and chief investment officer of Custos, a listed investment firm, in the mid-1990s.
它的“建设性”行动主义,即一次仅仅集中于关注十几家公司,追溯到20世纪90年代中期担任上市投资公司Custos的首席执行官兼首席投资官的创始人时期。

Although European corporate governance is often compared unfavourably with America's, Mr Gardell says it has many advantages.
尽管欧洲公司的治理往往比不过美国的公司,但嘉戴尔说它具有很多优势。

American management largely controls the process for nominating new board members, so an activist fund may need to wage a loud campaign just to get a seat at the table.
美国管理层主要控制提名新董事会成员的过程,因此维权基金仅仅获得会议的一席之位都可能需要发动大力宣传才行。

In the countries where Cevian operates, its typical ownership stake of 5-20% is enough to easily, or even automatically, get a board seat.
在Cevian运营所在的这些国家中,典型的5-20%股权足以容易地,甚至自动获得董事会席位。

That said, it operates mainly in the Nordic countries, Britain, Germany and Switzerland, regarding governance in the wilds of southern Europe as too uNPRedictable.
即便如此,它主要在像北欧国家以及英国,德国和瑞士运营,因为在南欧偏远地区的治理具有不可预测性。