Dutch call for more activist shareholder rules

By Gilbert Kreijger

AMSTERDAM, May 8 (Reuters) - More rules are needed for activist shareholders in the Netherlands who have been pressing for change at Dutch companies or their break-up, Dutch institutional investors and company executives said on Thursday.

Rules about the identity of shareholders and shareholders' behaviour could be improved, Roderick Munsters, a member of a corporate governance committee which will advise the government on new rules later this year, told a meeting of Dutch institutional investors group Eumedion.

Munsters is chairman of Eumedion, which says in its corporate governance handbook it wants investors with a considerable stake in a company to state their intentions, among other issues.

The Dutch cabinet said last year it wanted more transparency and plans to lower the threshold for reporting stakes in a company, after hedge fund TCI triggered a process that led to the takeover and break-up of Dutch bank ABN AMRO.

Dutch chip equipment maker ASM International (ASMI.AS: Quote, Profile, Research) currently faces a push by an activist investor to sack its chief executive. Dutch industrial group Stork agreed last year to a takeover and break-up after hedge funds tried to fire the supervisory board to force a change in strategy.

New Dutch corporate rules should clearly state that a company's executive and supervisory board are responsible for a firm's strategy and that shareholders should respect this, said Ahold (AHLN.AS: Quote, Profile, Research) executive Peter Wakkie during the meeting.

Dutch food retailer Ahold sold its U.S. Foodservice unit last year to a private equity consortium for $7.1 billion after pressure from hedge funds Centaurus and Paulson to break the company up.

Jan Hommen, chairman of Anglo-Dutch publisher Reed Elsevier (REL.L: Quote, Profile, Research), said: "We have all seen that investors with a short term horizon and a strategy of shareholders' activism try to make life miserable for companies."

"They have no loyalty at all with the company or its other stakeholders," said Hommen, who also heads the supervisory boards of Dutch financial services group ING (ING.AS: Quote, Profile, Research) and Dutch mail company TNT (TNT.AS: Quote, Profile, Research). (Editing by Quentin Bryar)