Shareholder activist protection insurance

Shareholder activism is booming in the UK, with high-profile, well-funded campaigns frequently making headlines in the financial press. Activists are buying up stakes in targets and then using their position as shareholders to exploit weaknesses in companies and demand corporate change, often as a means of leveraging return. Dealing with these campaigns can prove exceptionally expensive for target companies and to date, there have been no available solutions to avoid these costs.

Shareholder activist protection insurance (SAPI), developed by Volante in conjunction with Marsh in the UK, is the world’s first shareholder activism insurance solution. Created to protect companies against legal and other costs when faced with shareholder attacks, it also provides an allowance for expert risk management and pre-loss services to identify potential vulnerabilities to activist campaigns. SAPI is designed for listed UK companies outside the FTSE 100.