Hedge funds are redefining shareholder activism. On Wednesday, Connecticut-based Hedge fund Pirate Capital launched a Web site dedicated to generating opposition to the pending sale of Aquila Inc, which owns electric and gas utilities in the US, to Great Plains Energy, reports AP.
Aquila and Great Plains said they had applied for regulators to approve the $2.6bn acquisition. The cash and stock deal would value Aquila at $4.54 per share. But Pirate Capital, which controls about 5 per cent of Aquila’s shares, has criticised the deal, saying it will shortchange shareholders and that it believes Aquila is worth up to $5.50 per share.
The Web site - http://www.badaquiladeal.com - lists it criticisms and, separately, maintains that the auction process the company used last year to find a buyer was flawed.
Pirate Capital advises to four event-driven funds, including the Jolly Roger Activist Fund. But it is not the first hedge fund to use the Web as an activist tool.
The Lion Fund, a San Antonio, Texas, hedge fund, set up EnhanceFriendly’s.com to try to “communicate [its] profound concerns about Friendly Ice Cream Corp.’s board of directors.” Having built a 15 per cent stake in what is reportedly an “overleveraged, moribund ice cream distributor”, The Lion Fund also launched a billboard advertising campaign to get their message across.
As yet, FT Alphaville has not detected any activist funds agitating on MySpace or Bebo.
