Shareholder Activism

China’s big banks enjoy calm before the storm

26 Aug 2016

Net profits at CCB and BoCom are stable, as are bad-loan ratios: a pleasant surprise given the wider backdrop. This partly reflects a growing gulf in asset quality between large banks and their smaller peers. The giants are probably also putting off recognising bad debts.

Bank activists could try their luck in Europe too

16 Aug 2016

ValueAct's 2 percent stake in Morgan Stanley has parallels with Knight Vinke's 2013 cage-rattling at UBS. That example aside, European banks have mainly dodged investor activism due to the threat of ever-higher capital requirements. There are early signs this could be changing.