Reggie Middleton is an entrepreneurial investor who guides a small team of independent analysts, engineers & developers to usher in the era of peer-to-peer capital markets.
1-212-300-5600
reggie@veritaseum.com
The day before the SNAP IPO, I penned "Goldman Sachs & Morgan Stanley Pull Off the Heist of the Decade, Bends Over Those Who Don't Read BoomBustBlog". Despite being rather dramatic, I was dead serious. Fastword 48hours after the IPO, and I was able to pen "On Just the 2nd Full Day of Trading, Arithmetic Reality Hits SNAP Stock". Who could've known? Now, four days after the IPO, guess what?
One of my (many) gripes with the SNAP IPO (and to be honest, many others brought this point up as well) was the sale of common stock with absolutely no voting rights, to wit:
Well, Reuters reports activistist investors are attempting to block SNAP from inclusion in major indexes, to wit:
A group representing large institutional investors has approached index providers S&P Dow Jones Indices and MSCI Inc, looking to bar Snap Inc (SNAP.N) and any other company that sells investors non-voting shares from their stock benchmarks.
Both index providers have said they are reviewing Snap's inclusion. Were Snap to be added to indexes such as the S&P 500 Index or the MSCI USA Index, managers of stock index portfolios would have to buy its shares, and other investors whose performance is tracked against such indexes would likely follow suit.
Some money managers worry about buying Snap’s Class A shares because they have no voting rights, meaning those shareholders will have no voice on matters like company strategy or executive pay.
"They're tapping public markets but giving public shareholders no say," said Amy Borrus, deputy director of the Council of Institutional Investors, which represents pension funds and other large asset owners, in an interview.
In reaching out to both index providers, she said, "What we would like to see at the least is for the indexes to exclude new no-vote companies."
David Blitzer, managing director of S&P Dow Jones Indices and chair of a committee overseeing its indexes, said they would not add a new stock like Snap for six to 12 months after its IPO in any case, and will use that time to study Snap's structure.
While the index provider does not have a hard requirement about a company's voting structure, the committee needs to think through how much influence investors should have, Blitzer said in an interview on Monday.
MSCI (ex-Morgan Stanley) was (or shall I say is, they seemed to be alight with it until someone raised a stink - wonder why???) a bit less sanguine on the matter:
MSCI (MSCI.N) said on March 2 that Snap would qualify for indexes including the MSCI USA Index, but said on March 3 that after additional analysis Snap did not meet all requirements. Snap's inclusion into the MSCI USA Index will be re-assessed in May, MSCI said in a statement on its website.
MSCI is seeking feedback from investors about whether companies without voting rights should be included in indexes, according to the March 3 statement. A spokesman did not immediately provide further details.
Since no one else will say it, I will. SNAP's lack of earings visibility, slowing growth and void of common shareholder voting rights (at least those shares sold in the IPO) were all easily availalbe. You guys allowed Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to make sheeple of you once again. Now, is not the time to complain. The stock was ridiculously overpriced anway, and may fall further still. Index inclusion requirements vary. For the S&P 500 a stock typically needs a market capitalization of around $5.5 billion and to have been profitable over the past four quarters.
I don't see Snap being profitable four quarters in a row without sacrificing growth, and possible not ieven then.
Reggie Middleton is an entrepreneurial investor who guides a small team of independent analysts, engineers & developers to usher in the era of peer-to-peer capital markets.
1-212-300-5600
reggie@veritaseum.com