Elliott flub hurts Hong Kong investor activism too

The Bank of East Asia

31/01/2022 02:56

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist.  The opinions
expressed are her own.)
    By Jennifer Hughes
    HONG KONG, Jan 31 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The pushy
shareholder has thrown in the towel on its seven-year battle
with Bank of East Asia. It looks like a costly defeat for Paul
Singer’s firm. That an industry titan failed to break through
family ties so prevalent in the city shows the hazards for
similar campaigns.
    Full view will be published shortly.
    Follow @JennHughes13 https://twitter.com/JennHughes13 on
Twitter
    
    CONTEXT NEWS
    - On Jan. 28 Bank of East Asia announced plans to buy back
and cancel the 8.43% of its shares held by Elliott Investment
Management. 
    - At a maximum price of HK$11.78 per share, representing a
7.24% discount to their Friday close, the deal will cost the
bank up to HK$2.9 billion ($372 million).
    - Elliott first disclosed it held a stake in the bank, of
2.5% at the time, in February 2015. Since then BEA’s shares have
fallen 60% compared with a 2% fall in the Hang Seng Composite
Financials index.

 (Editing by Antony Currie and Katrina Hamlin)
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