THERE was a time when UK institutional shareholders could be relied upon to back mangements in their takeover aspirations, or at least keep quiet about the whole thing until they had had time to digest all the details.
But yesterday both Schroders and Standard Life’s David Cumming (near left), accounting for a total of around 3.5 per cent of Xstrata’s shares, very publicly slammed the merger proposals for the Glencore Xstrata deal even before they had held one-toone meetings with management. Schroders’ Richard Buxton (below right) has been here before. He publicly last year criticised the board of Charter for not agreeing to a bid from Melrose. In the end, Charter was taken over by Colfax, which came in with a higher offer. To some, this undermined Buxton’s outspoken stance throughout the whole bid.
Of course, investor opposition might be a negotiating tool that leads to better terms for Xstrata shareholders. But sources close to the company were fairly dismissive last night: “Would you put your family money behind Buxton or Ivan Glasenberg and Mick Davis? I know what I would do.”
