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Trian said in a regulatory filing that it owns 9.9% stakes in
both Atlanta-headquartered Invesco and Denver-headquartered
Janus Henderson and has spoken with both firms.
The news that Trian, which has a history of investing in asset
management firms, is pushing for changes at the two prominent
U.S. firms lifted stock prices in pre-market trading on Friday.
Invesco's shares were up 5.78% while Janus Henderson's shares
were up 6.48%.
Reuters reported news of the new stakes on Thursday and
representatives for the companies said on Thursday that each
company was committed to delivering value for shareholders.
Friday's filing had more details, including that Trian has asked
for two board seats for its co-founders Nelson Peltz and Ed
Garden at Invesco.
The filing said Trian has held "constructive" discussion with
Invesco's chief executive officer Martin Flanagan and chief
financial officer Allison Dukes. At Janus Henderson, Trian has
spoken with non-executive chairman Richard Gillingwater and
intends to speak with the board and management about strategic
and operational initiatives, the filing said.
It is unusual for an activist to take two stakes in companies in
the same business at the same time and push for consolidation,
industry lawyers said. But Trian has experience in asset
management industry consolidation having sat on the board of
Legg Mason which was purchased by rival Franklin Resources
earlier this year.
Smaller players are struggling to stay relevant with giants like
Vanguard and BlackRock controlling the bulk of the industry's
assets at a time investors are preferring passive index funds to
more expensive actively managed portfolios.
(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
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