Respect for the abrasive Mr Hohn, RMs biggest shareholder

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James Moore: Grudging respect for the abrasive Mr Hohn, Royal Mail’s biggest shareholder

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If you’re like me and you kept your allocation of Royal Mail stock from the recent privatisation, say hello to TCI. The hedge fund has been gobbling up the shares of those who sold and is now the biggest private holder on the register. Fireworks could follow. TCI stands for The Children’s Investment Fund Management, so named because the fund, run by Christopher Hohn, kicks a substantial annual donation over to his wife’s Children’s Investment Fund Foundation.

If that makes it sound cuddly, it shouldn’t. Mr Hohn is not well-loved in the corporate world thanks to the aggressive assaults he has made on a host of underperforming companies.

He is not well loved in certain chancelleries either, given his willingness to launch salvos against state-run, state-backed, or state-linked companies in countries where that’s just not the done thing. While his tactics haven’t always proved successful, he has nonetheless notched some notable victories.

No surprise, then, that his activities and abrasive style haven’t won him friends. One executive described him as “poison” and he has even received death threats.

The outcomes of Mr Hohn’s activities haven’t always proved beneficial either. Take his attack on ABN Amro, which ultimately led to the takeover of the Dutch bank by Royal Bank of Scotland, and the latter’s near collapse.

The responsibility for that debacle lies with Fred Goodwin, his pals and the regulators who were asleep at the wheel. But Mr Hohn’s role in the drama shouldn’t be forgotten.

Despite all this, I have a certain amount of respect for someone willing to stand up to vested corporate interests and shout “yah boo sucks to you”. Mr Hohn’s habit of attending annual meetings is also laudable when far too many institutional investors can’t even be bothered to vote on annual reports.

He has recently taken a softer approach, and even had the Wall Street Journal gushing about how the Prius-driving yogi (he does yoga) has become “a changed man”. Don’t believe the hype. Mr Hohn didn’t buy in for fun and if Royal Mail doesn’t run fast, he may run it over. Life for its directors just got a whole lot more interesting.