1/13/2026
Investor Activism Hits New High, with Japan Behind Only US
Nikkei Asia (01/13/26) Ishikawa, Chihiro; Sakabe, Yoshinaru
Proposals and demands by activist shareholders globally reached a record high in 2025 as investors put pressure on U.S. and Japanese companies missing out on the stock market rally, a trend that looks likely to continue in 2026. Data from Lazard shows 295 activist shareholder campaigns last year, a third straight annual record. This represented a 15% jump from 2024, with the pace of growth accelerating. Based on region, 173 took place in North America, rising 28% to break the record set in 2014. Japan, with 56 campaigns, overtook Europe to rank second. Board changes were the most frequent demand, at 37% of campaigns, while proposals related to mergers and acquisitions -- such as selling businesses and industry consolidation -- made up 35%. Though share prices are high globally, not all stocks are strong performers, as money is concentrated in certain fields such as artificial intelligence. Activist investors are turning their attention to relatively underpriced names that have not benefited from the upswing. These include Canadian sportswear maker Lululemon Athletica (LULU), in which Elliott Investment Management disclosed a stake of more than $1 billion last month. Lululemon's shares, which at one point had fallen roughly 70% from their 2023 peak as U.S. tariffs and inflation cooled consumer sentiment, jumped nearly 9% at one point on the day after the announcement. In the United States, HoldCo Asset Management has pushed Comerica Bank (CMA), a Texas-based regional lender, to sell itself. Another fund, Ancora Holdings, is encouraging rail operator CSX (CSX) to pursue a merger with a peer. Meanwhile, market reform is a major driver of activism in East Asian markets. Activist investors have made inroads in South Korea, where campaigns rose from six to 11 last year amid hopes that President Lee Jae Myung will make progress on corporate governance reform. U.K.-based Palliser Capital in October disclosed an interest in LG Chem (051910). Raising concerns about its valuation languishing at one-third that of battery subsidiary LG Energy Solution (373220), Palliser called for a board reshuffle and share buybacks. Given the government's focus on shareholders, LG Chem is unlikely to be able to buy time through silence, Maeil Business Newspaper wrote. In Japan, shareholder activism has grown since the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2023 began pushing businesses to be more conscious of their cost of capital and share prices. Elliott in December disclosed a 5% stake in Toyota Industries (TYIDY), which accepted a buyout bid by Toyota group companies earlier last year. Hedge fund Third Point, a onetime Sony (SONY) investor, recently returned to Japan with a stake in industrial machinery maker Ebara (EBCOY). Shareholder proposals are more likely to pass as well. Investors in Synchro Foods (3963), which provides support services to the restaurant industry, recently agreed to a proposal to appoint Kazunari Sakai, head of Japan research at Asset Value Investors, as an external director. How businesses use their cash hoards likely will be a focus ahead of this year's revisions to Japan's corporate governance code. Companies' "net cash situation is often not appropriate from a capital efficiency standpoint," Sakai said. "I hope to see a lot of it used for investments beyond the cost of capital." "Given the high level of M&A in the United States and the accumulation of success stories in Japan, I don't envision [shareholder] proposals going down in 2026, at least," said Kenta Akiyama, head of the Japanese arm of U.S. investment bank Lazard (LAZ). "Activist investors' cash on hand is growing, which makes it easier to embark on new campaigns," said Hidenori Yoshikawa, chief consultant at Daiwa Institute of Research. Returns are a major issue for activists. Considering that the boom in AI-related shares has lifted stock indexes, it is more difficult for these investors to beat their benchmarks. Lazard looked at the stock performance of European and U.S. companies targeted by activist investors. Though they outperformed broader stock indexes five days after the campaigns began, some were down by double digits a year later. A similar trend can be seen in Japan. In the first half of 2025, stock returns on companies in which activists invested for at least six months outperformed the Topix index by only about 0.6 percentage point after 120 trading days, data compiled by Nomura Securities shows.
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