Services

Companies put enormous effort into getting to IPO day. The deal completes, the photo is taken and real life begins. Those first twelve months are not a victory lap but form a credibility window in which the market decides whether the equity story and the numbers hold up, as well as whether the leadership team can thrive within a publicly-listed entity. Private valuations are insulated from daily noise, listed prices are not. While volatility, sector rotations and macro headlines all play a part, most post-IPO underperformance is driven by things the company can control.

Activism has travelled a long road from the pension-fund discipline of the 1980s, through the governance mainstreaming of the 1990s and the hedge-fund expansion of the 2000s, to the post-COVID focus on portfolio shape and operating performance. The European version today is quieter in public and firmer in private, with alliances that mix local institutions and global capital with outcomes that lean towards board refresh, capital deployment and disciplined execution. The focus has shifted towards more local players, more negotiated tactics and proposals that link directly to value creation rather than theatre. The implication for boards is clear: arrive with a coherent equity story and defensible capital choices, or someone else will write the plan for you.

The asset management landscape is inexorably shifting, with passive strategies dominating inflows. This is creating urgency amongst active managers, with the search for Alpha heightening the need for agile reallocation of capital. In Europe, this has brought renewed attention on small and mid-cap equities, opening a rare window of opportunity for those with the right narratives, execution and strategic engagement.