Jana Partners' fund gains 30% as bets such as Vonage, LabCorp pay off

Momentive Global

10/01/2022 21:40

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss
    BOSTON, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Jana Partners LLC, the activist
investor that successfully pushed for big changes including
sales at portfolio companies, told investors that its JSI
Benchmark A portfolio returned 30% after fees last year, two
sources said on Monday.
    The gains were fueled by campaigns at Vonage Holdings Corp
 VG.O , which sold itself, and Laboratory Corp of America
Holdings  LH.N , which announced a $2.5 billion share buy-back
and plans to pay a dividend.
    The portfolio's gains last year beat the benchmark HFRI
Activist Index' 19% return, as record setting market gains
helped investors.
    Over the last three years, the JSI Benchmark A portfolio
returned an average 30% a year after fees, the investors said.
    The Jana Strategic Investment fund, structured more like a
private equity fund, returned 26% after fees last year, said the
sources who are not permitted to discuss the private funds'
returns. Since its 2010 founding, the JSI fund returned an
average 18% a year, one source said.
    Jana Partners also filed a preliminary prospectus for its
second special purpose acquisition company called Osprey
Technology Acquisition Corp II  OTII_u.N .
    A spokesman declined to comment.
    The numbers come three years after Jana, founded by Barry
Rosenstein in 2001, announced the closing of its event-driven
funds. 
    The firm manages $1.6 billion in its activist strategy and
is best known for having pushed for changes at Whole Foods that
led to the sale to Amazon  AMZN.O . It is among the most
successful of its type, shunning the limelight and trying to
work collaboratively with target companies, said industry
investors and other fund managers.
    Research firm Gordon Haskett named Jana its "activist of the
year." 
    "Nobody catalyzed more action or was around the hoop more
consistently than Jana," analyst Don Bilson wrote.
    A large share of Jana's returns are directly related to work
the firm did to make changes at target companies and did not
come from gains in fast growing technology companies or private
investments, which Jana does not own.
    Shares of Vonage Holdings rose 59% between May and November
when the company announced a sale to Ericsson. LabCorp's stock
price climbed 54% as Jana urged a strategic review. Jana also
pushed for a sale of data center company Cyrus One  CONE.O 
which was taken private by buyout firms KKR & Co and Global
Infrastructure Partners.
    Now it is pushing to break up Encompass Health  EHC.N ,
scuttle Zendesk's  ZEN.N  planned purchase of Momentive Global
 MNTV.O  and get Mercury Systems  MRCY.O  to consider strategic
alternatives.

 (Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by David Gregorio)
 ((svea.herbst@thomsonreuters.com; +617 856 4331; Reuters
Messaging: svea.herbst.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))