HSBC is being targeted by an activist American investor which wants to force a shake-up at Britain’s biggest bank, Guardian reports.
The high-profile US fund management firm, Knight Vinke Asset Management, was behind a successful campaign at oil giant Shell three years ago and now says it intends “to engage in a constructive dialogue” with the HSBC board and other institutional shareholders in the bank over its “future direction and governance.”
Knight Vinke wrote aletter to the HSBC board which requested that it undertake “a fundamental review of the group’s strategy in consultation with shareholders.” It said it also raised a number of “important governance-related concerns and asked that the board consider these as part of the review.”
Knight Vinke is headed by New York-based investor Eric Knight, a former investment banker. He has waged a number of high-profile campaigns against companies and in 2004 succeeded in persuading Royal Dutch Shell to abandon its dual British-Dutch corporate structure.