“The Craft of Active Equity Ownership.” Cevian's Activism, with Lars Förberg, Managing Partner

Description

“Activism” might be one of the less helpful terms in modern investing, a label that conjures everything from boardroom bust ups, to terse exchanges between disgruntled shareholders and incumbent managements. However, in this conversation, Lars explains the early insights gained from collaborations with the great Carl Icahn, to building Cevian, and creating a long-term, extremely successful fund, investing in a small number of listed European and UK companies to help bring about significant, value-creating change. He explains the voyage from identification to ownership; from constructive engagement to taking a place on the board; to working to bring about change and improving the business’s execution to driving improved shareholder returns through operational improvements. He contrasts their approach to that of private equity, discusses investing as they did to bring about change at ABB, to pondering on the question of “why more people don’t do this?” Subscribe to stay up to date with our range of fascinating interviews, featuring some of the biggest names in global finance and business! RECORDING DATE: 22nd April 2026 TOPICS: 00:00 Public vs. Private Equity Challenges 12:00 Forming Cevian, Strategy Evolution 18:00 Active Ownership and Identifying Value 23:00 Industry Focus: Filtering and Risk Management 28:00 Selecting, Researching, and Entering Investments 38:00 Overcoming Resistance and Ensuring Implementation 43:00 Dealing with Setbacks and Learning from Challenges 47:00 Exits and Comparing to Private Equity 51:00 Performance, Benchmarking, and the European Edge 54:00 AI, Ownership Gaps, and Industry Reflections 56:00 Reflections on the Investing Landscape and Closing Thoughts SPONSORS: - J.P. Morgan Asset Management is the home of active ETFs. Powered by deep research, their range of over 40 active UCITS ETFs has been designed to help investors build stronger, more resilient portfolios. Find out more: https://am.jpmorgan.com/gb/en/asset-management/per/funds/etfs/ - IFM Investors are a global i