Bibliographic Note

I've recently received via snail mail a catalog from Edward Elgar Publishing, giving titles that deal with a wide variety of legal/regulatory matters. One of their recent publications that might be of special interest to readers of this blog is: CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND DEVELOPMENT, an anthology edited by Thankom Gopinath Arun, of the University of Central Lancashire and the University of Manchester, and John Turner, Queen's University Management School, Belfast.

The catalog descriubes the book as analyzing "the complex relationship between corporate governance and economic develpment by focusing on the reform of corporate governance, the role of the lagl system, and the interconnections with the financial system."

I'd also like to give a shout-out to two forthcoming books from EE.

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE IN MODERN FINANCIAL CAPITALISM, by three authors affiliated with the Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden: Markus Kallifatides, Sophie Nachemsson-Ewall, and Sven-Erik Sjostrand. Available in June 2010.

The authors focus on Old Mutual's takeover of Skandia as a test case of corporate governance.

CONTRACTUAL NETWORKS, INTER-FIRM COOPERATION AND ECONOMIC GROWTH, anothger anthology, edited by Fabrizio Cafaggi, of European University Institute, Italy. Available in September 2010.

Its authors postulate that "collaboration among firms of different sizes constitutes a potential response to numerous weaknesses of modern western industrial systems."

Daimler and the locusts

Share prices of the German auto company Daimler have risen more than 4% in recent days, apparently on the strength of rumors that an unspecified hedge fund is building up a position in the company.

The magazine, Focus, citing a supervisory board member, said that it has confirmed the rumors that Daimler is "in the sight of the foreign hedge fund."

A spokeswoman for the company, responding to the magazine story yesterday, said the company has no indication that any hedge fund is interested.

The rumors seem to have gotten more specific since that statement. This morning, the newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung is reporting that the Swedish investment fund Cevian Capitalis buying up shares.

The meaning of the labels can be slippery, especially since the laws vary from one country to another, but Cevian seems from the description on its website to be more of a private equity fund than a hedge fund. Still, if it is buying a large chunk of Daimler, it probably wants to shake things up. That website refers to its strategy of "active ownership."

The terminological distinction is important because German politicians have taken to denouncing foreign hedge funds as "locusts." Maybe a foreign (but European) PE fund seems less threatening.

At a maximum (and I'm engaging in nothing more than blue-skies speculation here folks) this sort of news can put a company "in play" as an acquisition target. I doubt Cevian would want to acquire such a "big fish" outright, but there are other companies in the world that would want Daimler.