(Reuters) – Activist investor Elliott has acquired a significant stake in RWE AG and is urging the German utility’s management to initiate a share buyback program, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Elliott’s actual stake size couldn’t be immediately learnt, the report added.
Frankfurt-listed shares in RWE turned positive on the report and were up 0.6% at 1803 GMT.
Last month, Germany was examining whether it could require investors to disclose a 3% stake that comprises a combination of shares and derivatives after Italy’s UniCredit acquired a hefty stake in Germany’s Commerzbank.
Buybacks have been a key sticking point for RWE investors who pressed its management for clarity on the subject during a call on its final full-year results in March.
Then, in May, Chief Financial Officer Michael Mueller gave the clearest signal to date that it may consider returning cash to investors via buybacks.
In 2023, RWE rejected a motion by activist fund ENKRAFT against the utility’s plans to seek authorization from shareholders to issue convertible bonds without giving existing investors the option to subscribe.
Elliott didn’t immediately respond to a Reuters request for comments while RWE declined to comment.
(Reporting by Bipasha Dey in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Chrisoph Steitz; editing by Alan Barona)
