Strategic Moves: Elliott & Bluescape Aren’t Asking Sempra’s New CEO For Much

Mark Melin

Published onJune 12, 2018

Updated on May 14, 2021

Sempra Energy had a friend in activist investor Elliott Management.

Last August, Elliott helped the San Diego-based operator of electric utilities win a takeover battle over Oncor, a Texas utility company. Less than one year later, Elliott teamed up with utility investor Bluescape Resources to purchase 4.9% of the company, adding to previous holdings. While Sempra’s conglomerate structure has not changed since then, the activists are requesting six Sempra board members be removed and certain assets sold. The move tests six-week-old CEO Jeffrey Martin, who has no experience facing aggressive activist investors as head of a Fortune 500 company.

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Mark Melin

Mark Melin is an alternative investment practitioner whose specialty is recognizing the impact of beta market environment on a technical trading strategy. A portfolio and industry consultant, wrote or edited three books including High Performance Managed Futures (Wiley 2010) and The Chicago Board of Trade’s Handbook of Futures and Options (McGraw-Hill 2008) and taught a course at Northwestern University's executive education program.

Strategic Moves: Elliott & Bluescape Aren’t Asking Sempra’s New CEO For Much

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