Activist Elliott Captures Zeitgeist With Demand for Cash
CEOs can’t ignore that investors increasingly want share repurchases to be deployed opportunistically.
Own it all.
Photographer: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
Elliott Investment Management LP has landed on the register of one of the world’s cheapest renewable energy companies and is pushing it to do a jumbo share buyback. Can this piece of activism 101 really be so effective? After all, share repurchases essentially move money between existing shareholders and create losers as well as winners.
Under scrutiny is Germany’s RWE AG. Its transformation into a clean-energy company is on the cusp of paying off. The utility expects underlying earnings per share to grow at an annualized 13% from this year to 2030. Last week, it cut its investment program over the same period by 25%, or €11 billion ($11.9 billion). Yet comparing the company’s €34 billion enterprise value to its profit, the firm trades at a discount of around 30% to rival EDP Renovaveis SA and more than 10% to Orsted A/S.