Danone shares rise further as investor builds stake

Corvex Management, the activist fund run by Keith Meister, has built a stake in French yogurt maker Danone because it views the company as significantly undervalued, according to sources.

The New York-based hedge fund owns shares in Danone worth about €340m. The shares rose for a second day, up to 2.9% at one stage in Paris trading, leading gains in France’s CAC 40 Index. They are now up over 12% this year. Activist investors increasingly have European companies in their sights, and Dan Loeb’s purchase of a stake in Nestle has shown not even Europe’s biggest company is immune. Danone was previously a target in 2012, when Nelson Peltz bought a stake and sought tighter cost control.

“It’s incumbent on all of us as investors to be activist,” said Nicholas Melhuish, head of global equities at Amundi Asset Management.