“Based on listening to the needs of many clients and advisers, we realized that it would be beneficial for Okapi Partners to provide stock surveillance in-house,” said Goldfarb. “With Okapi Market Intelligence Group, we can provide our clients access to what stock surveillance’s services can offer but also enhance it with the work that we do and our experiences with a company and its shareholders.”
“Investor monitoring and market intelligence have always been part of Okapi Partners’ services to clients, but we are now formalizing this offering under Okapi Market Intelligence Group and adding Walt’s analytical expertise and keen eye for determining changes in share ownership,” said Bruce H. Goldfarb, President and CEO of Okapi Partners.
For the second year running, Activist Insight has named Okapi Partners as the proxy solicitor that worked on the most activist campaigns. Here president and CEO Bruce Goldfarb shares his predictions for 2018.
“This year we executed campaigns against larger targets and in defense of companies by utilizing new and innovative tools to communicate with shareholders for the benefit of our clients,” said Bruce H. Goldfarb, President and CEO of Okapi Partners. “As we always have, our team stepped up to the plate in our busiest year ever and delivered the highest quality counsel and execution our clients have come to expect.”
Activist Insight named Okapi Partners the #1 proxy firm in their December 2017 issue. Read the excerpt here.
Goldfarb said he would not be surprised if the final IVS number is different than what was presented on Wednesday, adding that there usually are some votes that are subject to change but that they typically are immaterial to the final outcome.
However, in this case, even small votes are not unimportant, and error associated with a small individual shareholder with 43,000 shares could swing the election in favor of P&G’s incumbent director. “The difference in the tally could be one voter,” he said.
Bruce Goldfarb joined hosts Jeff Klein, Anne Greenhalgh, and Mike Useem for a wide-ranging interview on shareholder activism for their series “Leadership in Action,” powered by the Wharton School.
Bruce Goldfarb, chief executive of Okapi Partners, a firm that helps run proxy fights but was not involved in this one, said that Mr. Ackman’s reputation had taken a blow, but that if ADP performed well in the future, investors might give him some of the credit.
“The short term sting to Ackman’s reputation will be painful and may impact his next campaign,” he said. “Nevertheless, the true reputation of any activist is based on the change in value of the target selected and the impact on that value that can be attributed to the campaign.”
But management usually has the advantage when shares held by employees are voted in a proxy battle, said Bruce Goldfarb, chief executive officer of Okapi Partners LLC, a New York-based proxy solicitor.
“Current employees tend to support management, especially if the employees do not think voting will be confidential,” Goldfarb said, speaking in general terms. A P&G spokesman said management cannot see how employees voted.
“The process very much has the appearance of the review of hanging chads in Florida,” Bruce Goldfarb of proxy advisory firm Okapi Partners told The Post, referring to the contested 2000 Presidential Election.
“Win or lose, it will have some impact on how P&G operates,” Goldfarb said.