This post first appeared on 8percentpa.substack.com
Time files. It has been c.20 years since we started blogging here. Today, few people use blogger. Blogger itself became difficult to use, ads and clickbaits dominate the posts. As such we ported to substack, an innovative newsletter platform, a while back. But we continue to post here from time to time.
In 2025, we pivoted to talk about activist stocks i.e. stocks owned by diligent, smart, activist fund managers who have made good money for their investors. From 2022 to 2025, we have also covered a couple of free cashflow compounders. We will still touch on these great stocks, the basic investment related stuff periodically, where relevant.
Shareholder activism is coming to Asia and Japan, because there are too many undervalued names. Even though everyone’s focused on US and its exceptionalism today, value is in Asia. As of 2025, roughly half of Asia’s listed stocks trade below book. 40% of all listed companies in Japan trade below book.
What is Shareholder Activism?
Shareholder activism is about investors using their stake in publicly listed companies to change the companies they have invested in for the better. In activist marketing lingo, it’s called positive transformation.
Publicly listed companies are complex animals. Most companies today have hundreds to thousands and for larger caps, hundreds of thousands or even more shareholders. Executive management of these companies answer to the board of directors who supposedly represent all shareholders.
But sometimes, things don’t really work.
Cosy management are supported by dysfunctional boards and share price languished for years. Hence we have so many companies trading below book and we need activists to shake things up.
How do Activists Make Money?
Activists invest in cheap companies stuck with certain issues and they try to unlock value by resolving those issues. It could be changing management, or divesting poor performing businesses, or even taking the entire company private. It has been a viable strategy and some of the best activist funds have generated stellar long-term track records. Interested readers please read the Harvard study link below:
Harvard study on activists: https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2023/08/01/do-activists-beat-the-market/
Activism is not new. Warren Buffett was the activist when he took over Berkshire Hathaway in 1965. In the early 2000s, the current version of activism came back to the US in a big way and the movement then grew globally into Europe and more recently Japan.
Family controlled businesses in Asia might need a bit more time before activists can work their magic. This is because families owning 30-50% of outstanding shares make it difficult for activist to do anything. But the time will come. It is a matter of when, not if.
We want to be ready. We hope to make money by identifying the best activist ideas. That’s the mission!
What substack has to offer?
We have published monthly investment ideas for the past few years. We started with the usual free cashflow compounder ideas but we pivoted to discuss activist names in 2025. Interestingly, many names turned out to have activist involvement. Since Japan is the biggest hotbed, we will discuss a lot of Japan ideas, but will also touch on interesting global and Asian activist names.
From time to time we will opine on investment basics, fundamentals, portfolio trades and updates, investment strategies, market analysis and more. This substack is targeting both aspiring and seasoned investors. We publish posts every 5-10 days on both invested and toehold ideas.
We invite you to start as a free subscriber on substack. We are also on X, LinkedIn and Telegram!
Let's also connect on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/8percentpa
X: https://x.com/ArvelVista
Telegram: https://t.me/+zF0bRcOXXo4zOTc9
The rest of the post is on 8percentpa.substack.com
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