Activist investor attacks SSE’s green plans

SSE has occur beneath renewed hearth from an activist investor around its “lacklustre” programs to tackle the change to cleaner electrical power, demanding it take into consideration a broader carve-up and add new administrators to the board. 

Elliott has absent general public with its demands weeks soon after the FTSE one hundred electrical power giant turned down the Wall Road hedge fund’s first connect with to break up by itself in two, proposing as a substitute to promote a stake in its energy networks division and minimize the dividend to fund growth.

In a letter to Sir John Manzoni, the SSE chairman, Nabeel Bhanji and Jeff Rosenbaum of Elliott explained the firm experienced “unsuccessful to put forth a thorough vision for how it can solution its persistent undervaluation, reverse its historic share-cost underperformance and adequately fund renewables growth past 2026”. 

They included: “We imagine that, with the suitable actions, there is a distinct route for the firm to unlock £5bn of untapped price and set up its leadership place as the UK’s renewables winner”.

Alistair Phillips-Davies, chief executive, explained SSE continued to have “constructive and supportive” talks with key shareholders about its proposals. 

“Separation risks beneficial growth options across the thoroughly clean electrical power price chain, would jeopardise our capability to finance and produce the key infrastructure the British isles requirements to create positions and reach net zero, and would reduce shared expertise that benefit the team… it is not the suitable final result to maximise price for shareholders or our other stakeholders,” he explained.

SSE is well worth far more than £17bn and owns and operates energy networks in north of Scotland and southern England as very well as a developing amount of wind farms.