欧洲活动家投资者正在弯曲他们的肌肉。U.K.对冲基金儿童投资基金管理的呼吁已为荷兰银行分手的投资基金管理导致了荷兰银行的收购战。纽约对冲基金Atticus首都仍然会在德国证券交易所运营商DeutscheBörse上转动热量。和英国金钱经理Hermes养老金管理正在倡导U.K.保险公司的破坏。在2006年2月，努力聘请了聘请加州公共雇员的退休系统，聘请了加州公共雇员的退休系统。
Even as these and other agitators strike fear in European boardrooms, a growing number of European money managers are embracing activism in the U.S. According to a study released in May by shareholder advisory Þrm Institutional Shareholder Services, they are doing so by employing a thoroughly American approach: the class-action lawsuit.
国际空间站的报告,“问责制”在全球展开,注意s that international institutional investors Þled lead-plaintiff motions in 12 percent of new federal securities class actions in 2006. That Þgure was down from 16 percent in 2005 -- but up substantially from 7.6 percent in 2004 and 6 percent in 2003.
German asset managers are leading the charge, seeking lead-plaintiff status in 50 of 182 legal motions tracked by ISS from January 1, 1996, to March 31, 2007. They were followed by money managers from Canada (39 Þlings), Israel (18 Þlings), Austria (13 Þlings) and Italy (13 Þlings).
German Þrms that pursued the most lead-plaintiff motions include Activest Investmentgesellschaft, now part of Italy's Pioneer Investments, which manages E232 billion ($321.3 billion) in assets. It won lead-plaintiff status in ten cases. DekaBank Group, whose units manage E187 billion, served as lead plaintiff in seven cases and Metzler Asset Management, which runs E38 billion was lead plaintiff eight times.
为什么德国资产管理人员适合美国诉讼，这是如此的Gusto？说明观察者的一个原因是它比德国法律行动更昂贵。例如，根据美国法律，律师才能在诉讼成功时收取费用。但在德国，法律成本可以代表一个大幅上行的支出，输家负责对方的费用。
“þ气风险阻止我们在德国去法院，”法兰克福梅特勒法律事务负责人斯特凡妮布查曼说。“我们可能会失去一切。”
Metzler is currently a lead plaintiff in Þve class-action lawsuits in the U.S., including cases against clothing maker Levi Strauss & Co., education company Corinthian Colleges and Molson Coors Brewing Co. Buchmann says Metzler plans to become even more active in the U.S. by possibly opting out of class-action suits altogether to pursue its own claims -- a potentially higher-risk, higher-reward legal strategy.
"This is a new idea that our lawyers have just presented to us," says Buchmann.
Another Þrm identiÞed in the ISS study is Frankfurt-based Union Investment, which manages E160 billion and in 1999 became one of the Þrst European money managers to Þle for lead-plaintiff status in the U.S. In April a federal judge in Austin, Texas, appointed Union lead plaintiff in a high-proÞle complaint against U.S. computer maker Dell. The German fund manager alleges that earnings manipulations caused the stock to drop; press reports put its losses at $20.25 million, but Union won't conÞrm that Þgure.
"German law requires us to protect our clients' investments," says Joachim von Cornberg, Union's head of legal affairs. "What started as a public relations exercise has become a necessity."
对于许多国际投资者来说，诉讼对美国公司进行了低的政治风险。在维也纳RaiffeisenZentralbankÖsterralbankÖsterreich，奥地利商业和投资的资产管理Arm银行。Raiffeisen于2005年被任命为Celead原告，以防止自动零部件制造商Delphi Corp.其中涉及700万美元的损失。√RM还声称，前德尔福高管在1999年在一般汽车公司迅速疲软后造成公司股票的报告。
"We're gaining experience with the Delphi case," says Palffy, who adds that it will take a couple more years to settle.
与德国和奥地利货币管理者相比，展示了美国法律肌肉的机构投资者 - 这拥有欧洲最大的养老金市场 - 仍然倾向于靠近门谈判。亚博赞助欧冠U.K.投资者试图在美国股票研究期间的案件中成为美国的领先原告。
Adam Savett, who wrote the report and heads up ISS's securities class-action unit, says that U.K. investors dislike suing companies they invest in and are suspicious of U.S. law Þrms. In addition, he says, there is a "tremendous reluctance in the U.K. to embrace the class-action concept and the contingency fees that go with it," given that such fees may total as much as 25 percent of any settlement. "It's a foreign concept," he adds.
U.S. law Þrms have helped fuel the interest in class-action suits, observers say. Many U.S. Þrms are cultivating clients in Germany and Austria as a springboard for tapping into investor discontent in the rest of Europe. Union Investment's Von Cornberg, for example, says that over the past six months, he has received several calls and letters from U.S. lawyers pitching their services.
Last year U.S. courts settled securities class-action lawsuits worth a record $18.3 billion, more than double the amount in 2005. Once settlements are divided among all the funds that are party to a case, there's often little left over for the individual investors whose money was lost. But as long as the costs of legal action remain low, such cases are bound, increasingly, to take on a distinctly international flair.
事实
REPORT NAME: "Accountability Goes Global"
AUTHOR: Institutional Shareholder Services
DATE PUBLISHED: May 2007
主要观点：全球投资者试图在2006年以约12％的联邦证券阶级行动成为原告。