Prominent activist investors post record 2020 returns despite pandemic-muted activity

[January 07, 2021]  By Svea Herbst-Bayliss

BOSTON (Reuters) - Some investors including William Ackman and Glenn Welling, who push corporations to perform better, posted record-breaking returns in 2020 when activist investors generally backed off demands during a year marked by wild and unexpected business conditions.

 William Ackman, founder and CEO of hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, speaks during the Sohn Investment Conference in New York, May 4, 2015. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

Ackman's publicly traded Pershing Square Holdings fund rose 70.2%, marking the best-ever return at his 16-year-old firm Pershing Square Capital Management and one of the best in the hedge fund industry. In 2019, the fund rose 58%, also a record.

Welling's Engaged Capital, founded in 2012 and known for pushing companies like Medifast Inc and Hain Celestial Group Inc to make changes, returned 51%. That tops the firm's previous record return set in 2019 with a 34% gain.

And Andrew Left, who has targeted companies he thinks are over-valued through his work at Citron Research, told investors that his hedge fund returned 155% in 2020, after gaining 43% in 2019, the fund's first year in business.

The gains reflect a late-year rebound among activists - fueled partly by strong stock market gains - with the average fund up 6.7% in the first 11 months of 2020 after a 27% drop in the first quarter, Hedge Fund Research data shows. Activist campaigns were down 20% in 2020 from the previous year, Lazard data shows.

At Third Point, where Daniel Loeb unveiled a late-year campaign at Intel Corp, the Offshore Fund finished up 20.6%, its best return since 2013 when it gained 26%. That came after Loeb repositioned the portfolio and personnel in the wake of a 16% loss in the first quarter.

Blackwells Capital, currently bidding for Monmouth Real Estate Investment Corp, gained 32% last year, their first time reporting their activist fund returns.

Falcon Edge Capital, a steady investor in blank check companies like the ones Ackman and Loeb's firms have created, gained 43% last year.

Representatives for the funds declined to comment.

(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss in Boston; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

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