Activist investors struggled to make money during the first six months of the coronavirus crisis. Unless they were invested in UK companies.

UK companies that are the targets of activist investors outperformed the Stoxx Europe 600 equity benchmark by 1.5% in the six months to the end of August, according to Alvarez & Marsal, a US consultancy. Continental European targets did less well, beating the same index by just 0.1%, while US targets underperformed the S&P 500 Index by 5.8%.