Chris Hohn Quotes

104 Chris Hohn Quotes (Sir Chris Hohn, Christopher Hohn, The Children’s Investment Fund Management, TCI, CIFF, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, Chris Cooper-Hohn)

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[In April 2007.] Shareholders should act as the owners they are because boards are not always aligned with, and occasionally fail, their shareholders.
Chris Hohn

[In April 2007.] Although activism can be disruptive, that doesn't mean that it's a bad thing for economies.
Chris Hohn

[In October 2008.] As long as we still believe in our positions, we won't let the markets change our minds.
Chris Hohn

[In October 2008] Quite frankly activism is hard.
Chris Hohn

[In July 2013.] By concentrating our capital in a handful of very good ideas… it can mean something and can outperform.
Chris Hohn

[In July 2013 on activism.] Is an inefficient space where few people are willing to do that…
Chris Hohn

[In July 2013.] Where there’s a corporate governance concern investors just seem to stay away completely. They don’t try to say ‘Well what discount should I apply?’ and they just completely stay away.
Chris Hohn

[In July 2013.] There’s a dearth of investors willing to be activist, and so few competitors.
Chris Hohn

[In April 2007 on his activism in ABN Amro.] We're not emotional about it; we're just looking for value maximization for shareholders.
Chris Hohn

[In October 2008.] This has been a brutal period for long-biased investors like us…
Chris Hohn



[In October 2008.] It is painful to lose money. I think the key for us is to maintain our core philosophy of long-term investing.
Chris Hohn

[In October 2008. Warren] Buffett has always said that he looks for good management teams, because they're easier to work with. We've often done just the opposite. We've frequently looked for excellent companies with underperforming management…
Chris Hohn

[In October 2008.] Activism has been profitable for us, but it's getting much harder…
Chris Hohn

[In October 2012.] The value of a company is not in one year’s cash flows but in 20 years of cash flows…
Chris Hohn

[In October 2012.] We think about our investments, not what they will look like in one quarter or one year, but what they will look like in 10 and 20 years’ time.
Chris Hohn

[In October 2012.] Activism is a powerful tool when it’s used correctly and the interesting thing is that almost no investors utilise it because they’re afraid of the career risk and the business risk and the publicity and the repercussions and so it is particularly powerful because so few people are willing to use it.
Chris Hohn

[In October 2012.] Management are not owners and when they diverge in their strategies it can be extremely costly for investors.
Chris Hohn

[In May 2013.] The fears over 2008 still persists in people’s mind, it is like a trauma. When you have a psychological trauma it takes many years to feel that the world is safe again and that scar of 2008 still persists and takes time for mental healing for investors and that’s why equities still remain cheap in our view because of that fear.
Chris Hohn

[In July 2013.] Understanding the sustainability of business models… and taking a long-term horizon over which the persistence of high barriers to entry plays out…
Chris Hohn

[In July 2013.] We run concentrated positions…
Chris Hohn



[In March 2005 on news that the Deutsche Borse had withdrawn it’s 1.4 billion pound bid for the London Stock Exchange.] I knew we would succeed. But I wasn’t expecting it so soon. I thought we would have to remove the management in mid-bid.
Chris Hohn

[In September 2006 on the Brazilian financial regulator ordering Mittal to make a public offer to minority shareholders in Arcelor Brasil after the Mittal/Arcelor takeover battle.] We believe we are absolutely entitled to the same 82 per cent premium that investors in Arcelor received, which entitles us to a mandatory buy-out at a price of 53 reals per share.
Chris Hohn

[In February 2007.] We believe that it would be in the best interests of all shareholders, other stakeholders and ABN Amro for the managing board to actively pursue the potential break-up, spin-off, sale or merger of its various businesses (or as a whole).
Chris Hohn

[In February 2007.] The managing board has presented several restructuring strategies over the last six years which were supposed to accelerate earnings growth which would be reflected in a higher share price... they have so far failed to deliver.
Chris Hohn

[In February 2007 to Snehal Amin on the CSX rail investment.] Your estimates from the start of the year and even last week look wrong and I am surprised that I am having to point this out to you. [‘You have to give us some credit for getting the big picture right here. Yes we were wrong on 07 volumes, but we were not wrong on the investment case.’ – Snehal Amin]
Chris Hohn

[In April 2007.] When we looked at the cost-income ratios of the different banks it owns - like Banco Real in Brazil, LaSalle Bank in the U.S. and Banca Antonveneta in Italy - and saw that ABN Amro's own cost-income ratio is materially worse than that of its peers, we concluded that the earnings power of the bank ought to be dramatically higher.
Chris Hohn

[In April 2007 on ABN Amro.] Our analysis of the company showed that its underlying earnings per share have been broadly flat for about six years, and the bank has substantially underperformed its global and European peer group, including world banks. ABN Amro actually has many good businesses, so this was a rather unusual situation.
Chris Hohn

[In April 2007 on what his ideal vision is for ABN Amro.] We'd like to see better management and the potential merger or breakup of the bank's assets. ABN Amro is too geographically disparate, which has made it hard to manage, and these businesses have been run rather autonomously.
Chris Hohn

[In April 2007.] ABN Amro's share price has been flat in a giant bull market, so clearly, the current strategy is not working, and it shows no signs of working. I do think that the company needs to be part of something larger…
Chris Hohn

[In April 2007 on ABN Amro.] They don't want to break themselves up. Their argument is that there is execution risk in a breakup. However, the businesses are run autonomously, and we believe a breakup is a real, feasible option.
Chris Hohn



[In April 2007.] Our assumption is that it is probably a nonsolicit agreement rather than an exclusive. It is fine in principle to try and close a deal on that basis, giving preference to one party, but if other parties knock on your door and you are only bound by a nonsolicit, you have a fiduciary duty to give the other parties equal access to due diligence and allow them to also make an offer.
Chris Hohn

[In April 2007 on the ABN Amro chief executive and a company breakup.] A breakup could create more value but not provide a job for him, so there is a conflict-of-interest issue there, yes.
Chris Hohn

[In April 2007.] The main point that we are asking is that this be an open, transparent process. And it shouldn't be that only one party gets access to the information and is called friendly by management. Friendly to whom? Friendly to management or friendly to shareholders?
Chris Hohn

[In April 2007.] We may be a catalyst, but we cannot win votes at the annual general meeting if the mainstream shareholders and Dutch shareholders don't like what we propose or if they like the status quo.
Chris Hohn

[In April 2007.] Activism doesn't have to be carried out in this high-profile way - it can be privately influencing companies. I think that companies are more and more trying to run themselves for shareholders; they are moving in the right direction.
Chris Hohn

[In April 2007.] I think that the European Union has welcomed activism.
Chris Hohn

[In May 2007.] If the ABN Amro supervisory board allows Mr Groenink to continue to manage the sale process, we believe that shareholders will lose economic value and it will violate the AGM motions on which they have voted.
Chris Hohn

[In March 2008.] I am not sure what to do now… We have a real credit crisis
Chris Hohn

[In March 2008.] I feel bad that we have not hedged properly. We should have hired a strategist to help us. Maybe we still should.
Chris Hohn

[In March 2008.] We have not appreciated the banking crisis meant banks were just bad to invest in because we kept too much exposure.
Chris Hohn



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