ANALYSIS: Q1 Activist Plays Targeted Foreign Firms, Toppled CEO

Foreign issuers occupy four of the top five spots on our list of the largest companies by market capitalization targeted by activist investors in the first quarter of 2021, based on data from the Bloomberg Terminal. The most successful campaign during this period involved the largest company on the list, Danone SA, as investors forced Emmanuel Faber, chairman and CEO of the underperforming French food company, to resign.

Danone struggled to recover from the initial pandemic downturn, as demand slowed for both its yogurt brands, Dannon and Activia, and for Evian bottled water. Three investment funds, Bluebell Capital Partners ...