It’s my job to understand activist investors
Activist investors launched a record number of campaigns in 2024, with more expected in 2025. Honeywell (HON) is no stranger to activist pressure with Elliott Management, which holds a roughly $5 billion stake in the company, pushing for a breakup of its business segments.
Honeywell CEO Vimal Kapur sits down with Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi at the 2025 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to discuss how he navigates pressure from activist investors.
“I would say shareholder engagement as [the] work of every CEO,” Kapur says, explaining, “I look at them as another shareowner. We meet with all shareowners, and they’re one of them. And it’s my job to understand their perspective and then build that perspective on a holistic basis.”
“They have a point of view. We may or may not agree with them, but my job is to engage with them and understand and explain our point of view to them, and then take it back to the board to say, here are the range of options,” he adds.
The CEO tells Yahoo Finance, “I see my job like somebody coming to a restaurant and telling you what are the range of options and make my recommendations, but I don’t make the decision, finally. It’s a collective decision which, the board has to make.
Click here for more of Yahoo Finance’s coverage from the World Economic Forum in Davos.
This post was written by Naomi Buchanan.
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