of this article may not meet wikipedia s notability guidelines for companies and organizations . please help to establish notability by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond its mere trivial mention . if notability can not be established the article is likely to be merged redirected or deleted . find sources knight vinke asset management news newspapers books scholar jstor free images september 2009 learn how and when to remove this template message knight vinke asset management type private industry investment management founded 2003 headquarters metlife building new york city united states website www.knightvinke.com knight vinke asset management is an american privately owned investment management firm that makes a business of investing in under performing bluechip companies then pushes for institutional changes in those companies which in turn increase the share value of the company which then profits knight vinke . knight vinke shot to fame in 2004 when it persuaded royal dutch shell to abandon its dual british dutch corporate structure despite owning only 0.03 % of its shares . operations edit knight vinke recently reopened the debate about investment banking by publishing an open letter in the financial times calling on the swiss bank ubs to review whether or not it should continue to own its wealth management business under the same roof as its investment bank . signed by eric knight the letter argued that the excessive risk within the ubs investment banking operations between 2007 and 2009 nearly destroyed the bank and a simplification of the group s structure would help the bank unlock its full value potential . 1 in february 2013 darty appointed eric knight to the board following a profit warning . knight vinke which has a 25 % stake in darty said it was frustrated at the pace of change and would exercise its right to join the board with immediate effect . 2 knight vinke has been an institutional investor in eni for over 5 years and since 2009 has been calling for the state controlled italian oil and gas group to break itself up . it has argued that eni s ownership of the gas pipeline operator snam left both with the wrong capital structure ; eni was overgeared for an exploration and production company while snam as a regulated utility was undergeared . 3 knight vinke played an important role in derailing a major acquisition of vnu . in late 2007 it started to challenge the strategy and governance of hsbc . in june 2009 hsbc s largest shareholder legal & general investment management lgim became the first major shareholder to offer public support for eric knight s activism and urged hsbc to pay heed and answer questions . 4 references edit http www.telegraph.co.uk finance newsbysector banksandfinance 10032694 activist investor knight vinke calls for break up of ubs.html http www.ft.com cms s 0 fb87d02c 7d1e 11e2 8bd7 00144feabdc0.html axzz2fudkjeay http www.thetimes.co.uk tto business columnists article3408636.ece top hsbc investor offers support to knight vinke reuters 17 june 2009 accessed 18 june 2009 external links edit manager magazin ubs september 2013 tages anzeiger interview with eric knight august 2013 reuters knight vinke still fears for ubs wealth business july 2013 ft video next steps for ubs july 2013 l agefi article on knight vinke ubs june 2013 efinancial news william wright would breaking up ubs be so hard to do june 2013 guardian comment nils pratley ubs investors should listen to some uncomfortable truths from small investors may 2013 what does knight vinke want from hsbc company official website the times ian king comment actively makes a difference may 2012 evening standard comment anthony hilton shareholder voices must be heard guardian comment nils pratley hsbc s strategy sounds familiar may 2011 evening standard comment anthony hilton activist voices can make a difference september 2010 bbc news article on recent knight vinke activities retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title knight vinke asset management & oldid 736233657 categories investment management companies of the united stateshidden categories articles with topics of unclear notability from september 2009all articles with topics of unclear notability navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 26 august 2016 at 03 11 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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