The pace of shareholder activism in Europe increased noticeably in the first half of 2022, jumping 67% from the same period in the previous year, according to data reported by Lazard on Wednesday.
Globally, the second quarter of 2022 was the second most active quarter in the past five, topped only by the first quarter when there were 73 campaigns.
Of the 53 global campaigns in the second quarter tracked by Lazard's capital markets advisory group based on data from FactSet, news reports and public filings, campaigns in Europe saw a 33% increase over the previous quarter, while activity in the U.S. declined 50%, to 22 new campaigns.
First-time activists accounted for 37% of all campaigns in the first half of 2022.
French campaigns against some of the largest companies represented 20% of all European efforts, while those in Germany fell to less than half of traditional numbers. As with previous quarters, U.K. companies were the frequent targets for European activists and represented 37% of all European campaigns in the first half of 2022.
The most active sector for shareholder campaigns was technology, accounting for 21% of all campaigns, compared with the 14% multiyear average for all campaigns. As with other sectors, the main issues for investors were mergers and acquisitions, strategy, and capital allocation.
"The challenging macroeconomic and investing environment influenced activists' demands in H1 2022," the Lazard report said, with 16 "sell the company" demands in the first half of the year, compared with 20 in all of 2021 and 14 in all of 2020. The second quarter saw increased focus on strategy and operations, and capital allocation policies, Lazard said.
On environmental, social and governance issues, shareholders focused on CEO pay and compensation policies. "Shareholders and proxy advisers actively expressed their concerns through say-on-pay voting and criticized CEOs they believe are overpaid as well as ineffective compensation policies," the report said.
On environmental-transition policies, management proposals passed and attracted a consistently higher level of support than shareholder proposals, the report said.
