In a strange media irony, the Financial Times earlier this week carried a report detailing why The Netherlands has a “unique investment climate” to attract hedge funds and activist investors, only for Financial News a couple of days later to quote Dutch economy minister Joop Wijn calling those very funds “locusts.” Yes, once again the hedge funds, and private equity funds, for that matter have managed to bug a top government official with the entomological insult first used last year by German politico Franz Muntefering. Wijn’s said hedge funds “behaved like locusts devouring companies one after the other” after activist hedge funds Centaurus Capital and Paulson & Co. urged the breakup of Dutch supermarket giant Ahold. (One of the “unique” aspects of the investment climate in the Netherlands is that the valuations of firms there, says the FT, are “chronically depressed.”) Wijn’s comments have already had an impact; according to FN, as a number of members of the Dutch parliament are pushing for restrictions on short-term investors.
