A total of 1,026 investor activist campaigns launched in 2022, which is now the highest yearly total on record. Campaigns with an ESG component accounted for 81% of the 2022 total, the highest figure in the last five years.
Communication Services saw the highest increase in ESG activist campaigns by sector from 2018 to 2022 with a 163% jump, followed by Consumer Staples (+157%) and Industrials (121%).
While the number of ESG-related investor activist campaigns have increased over the past four years, the rate at which those initiatives succeeded or settled decreased in 2022. Campaigns from 2022 feature the lowest average success / settle rate of any recent vintage with 18%, down from 37% in 2018.