Freedman Talks in Law 360 About Activism’s Turn to Inversion Transactions

In the wake of the recent report that a group of Walgreen Co. investors are urging Walgreen management to relocate overseas in order to take advantage of lower taxes, Law360 discusses such inversion transactions and the rise of their use in activist strategies. In the article, Olshan Partner Andrew Freedman says that “For experienced activist funds that have honed more traditional campaigns for changes to boardroom or everyday operations, adding structural strategy to the toolbox is a natural next move that helps widen their reach. Not every company is necessarily going to have opportunities that are in the headlights that scream at you where the operational performance has been suffering for a long time, but those very companies that may be performing well, may have hidden opportunities within their own structure or DNA that could, if acted upon, yield a tremendous amount of unlocked value.” Although inversions are complex transactions, Freedman says that “What we're seeing in these proposed inversions are opportunities to increase tax efficiency. That's just what an activist investor does. They look for opportunities to unlock value at a company.”