FTI Consulting has published an update to its interactive Global Shareholder Activism Map, which shows that shareholder activism gained momentum and geographic breadth in 2016.
To measure the potential risk in each jurisdiction, FTI Consulting created an index to track activism threat level by country and map key activists within each location. The analysis reveals that 342 activism campaigns took place outside the United States last year, compared to only 70 non-US activist campaigns in 2010.
The research shows that Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom have the highest risk for an increase in activism outside the United States. These countries have experienced changing economic factors, including a strong US dollar, undervalued asset prices and increased global scrutiny of corporate governance standards.
New markets such as South Korea and Japan felt the effect of governance changes and increasingly shareholder friendly sentiment in 2016 with landmark shareholder activism campaigns. Investors likely will continue to exert their influence in this region as they become more comfortable with this environment.
“The success of shareholder activism in North America continues to fuel its spread across the globe,” says Steven Balet (pictured), a Managing Director and Head of Corporate Governance and Activist Engagement at FTI Consulting. “These global shareholder activists are not necessarily US-based nor do they necessarily conduct their activism in the US style. They have, however, been increasingly successful in many jurisdictions across Europe, the UK and Asia.
