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Morgan Stanley holds top spot as activist defence firm - data

March 21, 2019 at 05:17 pm EDT

BOSTON (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley was ranked as the top adviser to companies targeted by activist investors publicly for the third straight year in 2018 while Goldman Sachs vaulted past two competitors to the number No. 2 spot, according to Refinitiv data published on Thursday.

In 2018, Morgan Stanley advised on 22 campaigns, working with Akamai Technologies, SandRidge Energy and Cigna when those companies faced pressure from prominent agitators such as Elliott Management and Carl Icahn, the data showed.

Unlike announced mergers and acquisitions, many companies that fend off activists do so quietly and do not want their advisers making the situations public. This can create discrepancies in the data gathered in the league tables.

Goldman Sachs advised on 18 public campaigns in 2018. In 2017 Goldman advised on six public deals, trailing Morgan Stanley, Lazard and Raymond James, claiming the fourth spot, Refinitiv data shows.

Lazard dropped to the number three spot in 2018, advising 16 companies. In 2017, a less busy year overall, Lazard advised 14 companies.

Spotlight Advisors, founded by Greg Taxin, a lawyer who worked as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs and Banc of America Securities, made its first appearance on the list, capturing the No. 4 four spot ahead of UBS, Citi, Raymond James, Credit Suisse and Moelis & Co.

Activists were busier than ever last year and launched 500 campaigns, 5 percent more than in 2017. They pushed companies to spin off divisions and asked for board seats, among other demands.

Consumer cyclical companies were the most heavily targeted last year, Refinitiv said, with 90 campaigns in the sector. One prominent campaign was at Campbell Soup Co, where Daniel Loeb's Third Point tried to replace all directors and initially pushed for a sale of the company.

Elliott Management, which launched campaigns at BHP Billiton Ltd, Qualcomm Inc, Bayer AG and Pernod Ricard last year, was ranked as the busiest activist, having launched 27 campaigns in 2018.

It beat out GAMCO Investors for the top spot.

Starboard Value, ranked as the third-busiest activist with 11 campaigns in 2018.

Innisfree and Okapi were the top proxy solicitors, firms hired to gather shareholders' votes, while Olshan Frome Wolosky beat out two competitors to rank as the busiest law firm with 101 mandates working for activists.

(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Dan Grebler)

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss

Stocks mentioned in the article

Add to a list Add to a list 0 selected To use this feature you must be a member Log in Sign up	Price	Change	5d. change	Capi.
AKAMAI TECHNOLOGIES, INC.	100.5 USD	-1.61%	-0.05%	15.66B
THE GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP, INC.	416.8 USD	-1.46%	+3.06%	145B
LAZARD	37.84 USD	-3.72%	+4.97%	3.44B
MORGAN STANLEY	92.04 USD	-1.92%	+1.95%	153B
RAYMOND JAMES FINANCIAL, INC.	119.3 USD	-6.46%	-2.03%	26.66B
SANDRIDGE ENERGY, INC.	14.46 USD	-1.33%	+0.91%	543M
CIGNA	354.4 USD	+0.61%	+1.68%	99.92B

Stanley Ho

For 40 years, Stanley Ho, also known as Ho Hung-sun reigned absolute master of the gaming industry in Hong Kong and Macao. Thanks to the monopoly allowed by the authorities in the sixties, he compiled a fortune with his firm Sociedade de Jogos de Macao.

At 13 years old, a stock market crash leads to the bankruptcy of his family. Affected but very combative, he decided that only studies could open the door to success to rebuild what has been collapsed under his eyes. He won a scholarship to the University of Hong Kong where he studied English, Japanese and Portuguese.

In the early sixties, his stepfather, so influential, gets for him the monopoly of the game in Macao. In short time, the patrimony of Stanley Ho made of him one of the richest men in Asia. In Hong Kong, he invested massively in tourism and infrastructure.

This involvement contributes significantly to a growth of 27% displayed by Hong King in 2002. But 2002 was also the year of the end of Stanley monopoly.
In 1999, Portugal retro ceded Macao to China and the Chinese government opened the gaming market to foreign investors. At first, the massive influx of American entrepreneurs, determined to make a second Las Vegas in the Far East didn’t disturb the king’s business. On the contrary, his knowledge of the casino and his network enabled him to make capital gains more spectacular.

In 2007, Stanley Ho, who owns 40% of the gaming market built a 52-floor tower in order to send a strong signal to newcomers. But some developers refuse to be intimidated following the example of Las Vegas Sands group, owned by Sheldon Adelson who grows a little more each day.

At 85 years old, it is not sure that "the man who transforms dreams into reality" as the Hong Kong people can call him can confront American entrepreneurs for longtime. Recently Macao authorities decided to slow down the expansion of casinos, a bad news for Stanley Ho.

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