Lazard banker sees activists empowered by shrinking shareholder base

New York

ON the 61st floor of the iconic 30 Rock building in Midtown Manhattan, Jim Rossman's team is embarking on a big data project this year. Its mission: analysing shareholder ownership in a way that could help chief executive officers hang on to their jobs.

Mr Rossman, who heads the corporate preparedness group at Lazard, has expanded his team globally to more than a dozen activist-defence bankers over the past three years. Among their tasks is a comprehensive study of every investor reporting holdings in any of 1,000 companies, including all of the S&P 500 constituents.