Lestudies bored the young Nelson quite a bit. He therefore left the prestigious Wharton business school in Philadelphia (USA) without a diploma to become a ski instructor. To pay for the trip, he delivers frozen foods to his grandfather’s business. And catches the business virus. At 80, Nelson Peltz is the most active and feared investor on Wall Street.
His latest victim is Alan Jope. The managing director of the Dutch-British consumer giant Unilever (Dove, Ben & Jerry’s) will leave his post sooner than expected. He will be replaced in July by Dutchman Hein Schumacher, director of the largest dairy cooperative in the Netherlands, Royal FrieslandCampina.
When Nelson Peltz arrived on the board of Unilever in May 2022, after months of pressure, the share price immediately soared. Shareholders knew there would be electricity in the air. Six months later, Alan Jope was asked to announce his departure.
Shake up annuities
He is accused of having missed the acquisition, considered very expensive, in January 2022, of the consumer pharmacy of the GSK laboratory, of abusing the social and environmental argument too much, and of not having succeeded in getting the market off the ground. share price since his arrival at the controls, in 2019. An eviction which recalls that of Emmanuel Faber at Danone, in March 2021. The most benevolent speeches do not hold up in the face of a flageole valuation.
With the end of easy money and the return of selectivity to the markets, it floats like the smell of fresh blood in global business. So the wolves of Wall Street come out of their lair and fear nothing. Nelson Peltz, who had already successfully attacked Procter & Gamble, is currently trying to force the door of the board of directors of the most famous American icon, Walt Disney.
For its part, the tiny financial boutique Hindenburg, a specialist in sensational revelations, attacked one of the largest Indian conglomerates, Adani, very close to power. The other big figure of activism, Elliott, is currently attacking the IT company Salesforce. All see themselves as vigilantes of capitalism, shaking up the rents of the leaders, the bureaucracy of the seats and the spending strategies. Like infrequent cleaners, but necessary for the survival of the system.