Paul Atkins Leaves Mixed Record for Activist Hedge Funds

With the departure of Paul Atkins hedge fund managers lose a Securities and Exchange Commission official that had a mixed record on their core issues.

On the one hand, Atkins, a Republican commissioner, was an ardent opponent of then-SEC chairman William Donaldson’s effort to have hedge fund managers register with the agency and open up their books to periodic inspections. Sure, many hedge fund managers already do that to draw in institutional investors who otherwise would allocate capital elsewhere. But others wished he was chairman so that they could avoid the costs of registering. Donaldson eventually joined with two Democrat commissioners to adopt hedge fund manager registration, but the whole rule was thrown out by an appeals court in D.C. thanks to activist fund manager Phil Goldstein and his Bulldog Investors.

On the other hand, those same activist fund managers probably weren’t so excited about Atkins opposition to Donaldson’s effort to allow investors to nominate director candidates on corporate ballots, the controversial “shareholder access” effort at the SEC. The measure is supposed to help activist institutions more than activist hedge funds, but most managers including Carl Icahn support the change, arguing it would give them more leverage at their target corporations.

Atkins also is a big backer of University of Texas Professor Henry Hu and his effort to reel in activist fund managers employing tactics involving “empty voting” or “hidden morphable voting” to advance their insurgency campaigns. Those insurgent fund managers employing cash settled equity swaps to pull some liquidity strings will likely be happy that Atkins is saying his goodbyes.

He’s not gone yet. Atkins promises to wait until his successor arrives. -- Ron Orol