Edinburgh – Activist hedge funds pressing for corporate change tend to create more noise than value and can make it harder for companies to work out what shareholders are telling them, fund managerHermes said.
Mark Anson, chief exective of Hermes, which runs the large BT Group pension fund, told the National Association of Pension Funds’ annual Investment Conference on Friday that activist hedge funds’ short-term approach can conflict with longer-term investors pushing for corporate change.
“I think they (hedge funds) are generating more noise than value at the moment. Hedge funds tend to take a shorter-term investment approach, whereas activist investors take a long term approach. Hermes invests for three to five years,” he said.
