- Europe's leading activist investor Cevian AB pressed Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) to amend its articles to give its Class A shareholders the power to convert their shares into Class B shares, Bloomberg reports.
- Class A shareholders carry ten times Class B's voting power per share, notes Bloomberg. Cevian holds ~5% of Ericsson's Class B shares.
- Cevian also demanded the removal of the dual deputy chairmanship structure for class A shareholders and asked sought public disclosure of corruption investigations. Cevian also sought for share buyback mandate.
- Ericsson's shares have lost about a third of their value in February after an investigation detailed its possible involvement in making payments to ISIS to facilitate sales in Iraq.
- Later the U.S. Department of Justice disclosed Ericsson's failure to make adequate disclosures about operations in Iraq before entering a deferred prosecution agreement in 2019.
- Price Action: ERIC shares traded higher by 1.36% at $8.18 in the premarket on the last check Friday.
