market folly

Sir Christopher Hohn's investment firm TCI Fund Management has filed a 13D with the SEC regarding its position in Altaba (AABA).  They now own 9.7% of the company with 79.77 million shares.

They've been slowly selling shares throughout the first three months of the year, presumably to stay below the 10% ownership cap as AABA has been buying back stock.


TCI Goes Activist on Altaba

The big development here, is that they've converted their 13G into a 13D and gone activist.  They're calling for a liquidation of the company, which owns big stakes in Alibaba (BABA) and Yahoo Japan.

Hohn sent a letter to Altaba, detailed below:

"As you know TCI is the largest shareholder of Altaba owning close to 10% of the company. We have very much appreciated your efforts to create shareholder value. We fully agree with your explicit goal of narrowing the wide discount to net asset value at which Altaba continues to trade.However, we believe that the current strategy of Altaba is unlikely to materially reduce this discount. A clear plan of liquidation is now necessary. This should involve a complete distribution or sale of all of Altaba’s Alibaba and Yahoo Japan shares.We attach a presentation for the Board and shareholders of Altaba laying out in summary our proposed plan of liquidation. We strongly believe that the vast majority of Altaba’s shareholders would be supportive of this plan.We have today converted our SEC filing to a 13D so that we may engage actively with you, the Board of Altaba and all shareholders to create the best outcome for all parties. We look forward to engaging with you constructively as you consider our proposal."

TCI's Presentation on Altaba

Hohn's firm also published a presentation on AABA and we've embedded it below.