The top shareholders of MSCI, a US-based provider of equity, fixed income, and hedge fund stock market indexes, have asked the company to split the company and put its stock market indices business on the auction block, according to The Financial Times.
The fresh demand brings out into the open the rift between management of MSCI and ValueAct, an activist hedge fund which owns an 8.3% stake in MSCI.
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MSCI earlier rejected ValueAct’s request for a board seat as the fund is boosting.
ValueAct believes that the indices business could be attractive to a strategic buyer, since stock exchanges are aggressively pushing into indexing.
Independent Franchise Partners, another key shareholder with an 8.6% stake in the firm, too is in favour of the splitting of the company.
Another key shareholder is supporting ValueAct’s request for boardroom representation, though it has not disclosed any view on the company split up.
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By GlobalDataAccording to this shareholder, "ValueAct have a good track record of being constructive board members. At MSCI, there are questions on whether a longstanding management is wedded to a strategy that doesn’t make sense, and ValueAct are very thoughtful about the questions they ask."
MSCI has already begun to set up defences against the splitting urges, appointing public relations specialists and bolstering its bankers team.
