Shareholder activism in shipping: the ‘big A’, the ‘little a’ and M&A
- Shipowner George Economou says that Navios Partners could be a target of a future activist campaign, although he says he personally doesn’t have the time
- Financial activists are generally not interested in forcing changes in public shipping strategies due to the industry’s relatively small market caps
- More shipowners are taking stakes in public peers; this is raising concerns that stakes may not be passive investments or activism-driven, but M&A precursors
Investors may be building stakes in a listed shipping company because they see a profitable investment, because they want to force changes or extract a ‘greenmail’ payout, or because they hope to eventually take over the company
