Episode summary
“The Craft of Active Equity Ownership.” Cevian's Activism, with Lars Förberg, Managing Partner
Money Maze Podcast
· · 58 min · Guests: Lars Fö rberg
Summary
Lars Fö rberg frames Cevian as a long-term owner rather than a headline-driven activist, arguing that public markets are dominated by passive, myopic investors while private equity has become crowded and undifferentiated. Cevian’s edge, he says, is to buy a meaningful stake, work with management and boards, and think in five-to-ten-year horizons rather than six-month earnings cycles. The firm, he says, deliberately uses the market’s flaws by focusing on a small number of companies where operational improvement can materially change value.
He describes a disciplined investment process built around geography, industry selection, and deep pre-investment research. Cevian looks mainly at Northern and Western Europe, avoids sectors it cannot forecast or influence, and prefers businesses with pricing power that are underperforming despite good assets or market positions. Before buying, the team will already have spoken with customers, suppliers, competitors, current and former managers, and other board members so it can arrive with a practical value-creation plan.
Fö rberg argues that resistance is usually handled through boardroom dialogue, not public confrontation, and that Cevian’s success comes from credibility, patience, and implementation. He says the firm has around 12 companies in the portfolio, about 16 billion in assets, and no leverage or shorting. On AI, he thinks it can help, but not replace the work of diagnosing root causes and driving organizational change.
Key takeaways
- Lars Fö rberg says Cevian targets Northern and Western Europe, with roughly 12 holdings and about 16 billion in assets, because that is where it has governance and operating edge.
- He argues public markets are full of passive investors, creating a gap for an owner who can hold for five to ten years and drive change.
- Cevian avoids businesses with unclear or uncontrollable economics, including biotech and companies exposed to heavy exogenous shocks or weak pricing power.
- Fö rberg says the firm’s best value-creation plans contain 8 to 12 actions, because not every lever will work and implementation risk is real.
- He says AI can support analysis, but it cannot replace the root-cause work and boardroom execution needed to turn underperformers into better companies.
Notable quotes
“The investors in the public markets are typically very passive, myopic and underinformed”
“We want to invest in a company with at least a 10-year horizon in terms of understanding what's going to happen to this company and its industry, right”
“We have an average 12 companies in our portfolio and maybe hold them for five six year on average making two investments a year”
“the companies we identify other people also see that they're underperforming that things should be done that strategy should be different”
“AI is not going to be a competitor in that. AI will help us and help many of our companies, but will not be a competitor what we're doing”
How the episode opens
The investors in the public markets are typically very passive, myopic and underinformed. That means that what we can utilize is exactly that our strategy is designed to use those flaws of the market if you wish where we can act as an owner. Uh where their market is myopic.
We can think in 5 10 year perspectives and where the market is highly diversified in owning lots of companies. So nothing is important to them. Private equity is now an incredibly competitive business where almost everyone in private equity is acting the same way.
They look the same, they talk the way, they think the same way, they they they have the same advisories and so on so forth. Everything is similar which means I mean if you study microeconomics everyone knows that if you have you know full competition and everyone there's no edge anywhere then you know you won't be able to outperform and I think that's a little bit where private equity is going. Of course, there will be some private equity funds that are better than others.
Um, but we have the benefit that we have not only a high value added strategy, but also with very limited competition. Activism might be one of the less helpful terms in modern investing. A label that conjures up everything from boardroom bustups to tur exchanges between shareholders who are disgruntled and incumbent managements.
However, not all activism is equal. And both at our own money maze allocator summit last year and this year at I Connections in Miami, I've had the chance to observe, understand, and listen to Sevian Capital, Europe's largest dedicated active ownership fund. Their approaches appear to us to be neither opportunistic nor headline driven.
In fact, publicity shy and long-term. It appears to be methodical, deeply researched, relentlessly operational.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- active equity ownership
- activist investing
- constructive engagement and board influence
- public vs private equity
- long-term value creation
Companies and tickers mentioned
- Cevian
- ABB
Watch the episode
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
More from Money Maze Podcast
-
Why, Where and How? CPP Investments' Heather Tobin on Building Large Hedge Fund Portfolios -
How Can We Educate Our Children Better As the World of AI Envelops Us? With Sir Anthony Seldon -
The Black Box Dilemma: Who Controls What AI Can Say? With CTGT’s Founder, Cyril Gorlla -
The Region That Defies Prediction - Simon Sebag Montefiore on The Middle East -
Fraud, Fees & Fake Degrees! Where's the Alternatives Allocation Headed? John Claisse, CEO, Albourne -
Come Fly with Me! Delta Air Lines, The World’s Biggest Airline - With CEO, Ed Bastian.
Money Maze Podcast, this episode and its artwork belong to Money Maze Podcast. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
