Britain’s most powerful activist investor has secretly built a stake in one of the country’s largest insurance brokerages after it was forced to abandon a $30billion sale to a rival.
City sources said The Children’s Investment Fund, controlled by multi-millionaire hedge fund boss Sir Chris Hohn, quietly accumulated shares in Lloyd’s of London broker Willis Towers Watson which is listed in the US but whose headquarters are in Britain.
Those were the days: London-based TCI once employed Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak
The stakebuilding move by London-based TCI, which once employed Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, comes after Willis pulled the plug on a sale to rival Aon in late July following opposition from the US authorities to the megamerger. It’s not yet clear why Hohn’s firm has bought the stake.
TCI is said to have begun engaging with Willis’s management last week to express its views on strategy, according to trade publication The Insurance Insider.
Typically TCI buys large stakes and holds the investment for a long period. Occasionally Hohn will launch a public campaign if his firm’s concerns are not met. In 2007, TCI urged ABN Amro to consider a break-up, which eventually led to the bid battle between Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland for the Dutch lender.
Sir Chris also got into a row with German stock exchange Deutsche Borse over its proposed takeover of the London Stock Exchange.
A spokesman for Willis declined to comment. TCI did not return calls.
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