TheChek News Flow

The private equity investor Aurelius Group is in talks to buy the beauty products chain the Body Shop, which has been put up for sale by its Brazilian owner, Natura & Co, a source familiar with the talks has told Reuters.

If completed, the deal is expected to value the Body Shop at a lower price than the £400m-£500m suggested in some media reports, the source said.

The Brazilian cosmetics maker Natura said in August that its board of directors had authorised the company to search for “strategic alternatives” for its subsidiary, including a potential sale of the business. Natura bought the Body Shop from L’Oréal in 2017.

Natura and Aurelius declined to comment and the Body Shop did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The trademarked material was introduced in 2021 on a line of sneakers and for the first time a Gucci bag, its storied Horsebit 1955 model, has been crafted in Demetra.

MILAN — Two years after launching its first sneakers made using the animal-free alternative material Demetra, Gucci on Monday is unveiling a new iteration of its heritage Horsebit 1955 bag made of it, turning to Billie Eilish to front a dedicated campaign of images and videos.

This is the first Gucci bag to be crafted in Demetra, and it reflects the house’s aim toward a more ethical fashion future and toward embedding circularity in its collections, while protecting its traditional tanning craftsmanship.

With a new asymmetric silhouette, the Horsebit 1955 bag, marked by an archival equestrian emblem, retails at $3,500 in black Demetra, while the model that also includes ebony GG certified hemp and Econyl regenerated nylon retails at $3,200.

The soundtrack in the videos is “What Was I Made For?” by Eilish, a vegan since she was 12, and a longtime vocal advocate for animal protection, pushing for designers and brands to stop utilizing leather and furs in their collections.

At the end of August in London, the singer spoke at the second edition of Overheated, a climate activism event presented by the nonprofit organization Support + Feed. She talked about her support for thrifting and other methods of sustainable shopping.

In fact, to further amplify its sustainability commitments, Gucci has made an undisclosed donation to Support + Feed, which was founded in Los Angeles by Maggie Baird to create an equitable, plant-based food system and combat food insecurity and the climate crisis.

In 2021, Eilish teamed with Nike on a collection of sustainable sneakers, two Air Jordan styles that are 100 percent vegan and made from 20 percent recycled materials. A year earlier, she partnered with H&M on a sustainable merchandise collection. In 2021, she was named PETA’s Person of the Year.

The Oscar and Grammy-winning artist has worn Gucci on several red carpet occasions, ranging from co-chairing the Met Gala last year wearing a Regency-inspired custom upcycled ivory and duchesse satin corseted dress from the brand, or at the LACMA Art + Film Gala in November last year, accessorizing with a monogrammed sleep mask and blanket. When she won the award for Best Original Song alongside her brother Finneas O’Connell last year, she wore a custom black ruffled Gucci dress. She has also fronted a campaign promoting Gucci’s eyewear collections.

Demetra contains upward of 77 percent plant-based raw materials and is made of viscose and wood pulp compound from sustainably managed forest sources as well as bio-based polyurethane from renewable sources.

The material is soft, durable, resilient, versatile and pliable, claimed the company.

Gucci introduced Demetra in 2021, after two years of research and development, on three sneaker models.

The Horsebit 1955 in Demetra includes a heavy metal- and chrome-free tanning process, and hardware is sourced with at least 30 percent recycled brass alloys and finishes containing 100 percent recycled gold and palladium. Other elements include certified cotton lining, and in one iteration, certified hemp and Econyl lining made from regenerated nylon where the Econyl used comes from manufacturing offcuts that have been upcycled via the Gucci-Up program; Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals-compliant dye and pigments, and recycled cotton dust bags with details in recycled polyester.

The company said the material has no impediments to scalability or limitations on volume.

Demetra does not replace leather but is an animal-free option that Gucci can incorporate across its collections, as it can be used for all categories of products, from footwear and accessories to handbags and apparel.

Demetra is made at Gucci’s factory Gruppo Colonna based in Tuscany. As a joint venture with Gucci since October 2019, the fashion house owns 51 percent of Gruppo Colonna. As part of Gucci’s commitment, any remaining greenhouse gas emissions associated with Demetra are translated into protecting and restoring forests and biodiversity.

In its 2022 Gucci Equilibrium Impact Report published in July, the house’s 2022 environmental profit and loss results revealed that Gucci reduced its absolute greenhouse gas emissions in scopes 1 and 2 of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol by 90 percent and its scope 3 emissions by 70 percent per unit of value added by 2030, from a 2015 baseline. In 2022, Gucci made good progress to reach these goals, achieving a 68 percent absolute reduction in scopes 1 and 2, with a 55 percent intensity reduction in scope 3.

Demetra is a patented and trademarked material, whose name was chosen by former creative director Alessandro Michele, inspired by Greek mythology and Demeter, the goddess of agriculture and new harvest, given its plant-based foundation.

The trademarked material was introduced in 2021 on a line of sneakers and for the first time a Gucci bag, its storied Horsebit 1955 model, has been crafted in Demetra.

MILAN — Two years after launching its first sneakers made using the animal-free alternative material Demetra, Gucci on Monday is unveiling a new iteration of its heritage Horsebit 1955 bag made of it, turning to Billie Eilish to front a dedicated campaign of images and videos.

This is the first Gucci bag to be crafted in Demetra, and it reflects the house’s aim toward a more ethical fashion future and toward embedding circularity in its collections, while protecting its traditional tanning craftsmanship.

With a new asymmetric silhouette, the Horsebit 1955 bag, marked by an archival equestrian emblem, retails at $3,500 in black Demetra, while the model that also includes ebony GG certified hemp and Econyl regenerated nylon retails at $3,200.

The soundtrack in the videos is “What Was I Made For?” by Eilish, a vegan since she was 12, and a longtime vocal advocate for animal protection, pushing for designers and brands to stop utilizing leather and furs in their collections.

At the end of August in London, the singer spoke at the second edition of Overheated, a climate activism event presented by the nonprofit organization Support + Feed. She talked about her support for thrifting and other methods of sustainable shopping.

In fact, to further amplify its sustainability commitments, Gucci has made an undisclosed donation to Support + Feed, which was founded in Los Angeles by Maggie Baird to create an equitable, plant-based food system and combat food insecurity and the climate crisis.

In 2021, Eilish teamed with Nike on a collection of sustainable sneakers, two Air Jordan styles that are 100 percent vegan and made from 20 percent recycled materials. A year earlier, she partnered with H&M on a sustainable merchandise collection. In 2021, she was named PETA’s Person of the Year.

The Oscar and Grammy-winning artist has worn Gucci on several red carpet occasions, ranging from co-chairing the Met Gala last year wearing a Regency-inspired custom upcycled ivory and duchesse satin corseted dress from the brand, or at the LACMA Art + Film Gala in November last year, accessorizing with a monogrammed sleep mask and blanket. When she won the award for Best Original Song alongside her brother Finneas O’Connell last year, she wore a custom black ruffled Gucci dress. She has also fronted a campaign promoting Gucci’s eyewear collections.

Demetra contains upward of 77 percent plant-based raw materials and is made of viscose and wood pulp compound from sustainably managed forest sources as well as bio-based polyurethane from renewable sources.

The material is soft, durable, resilient, versatile and pliable, claimed the company.

Gucci introduced Demetra in 2021, after two years of research and development, on three sneaker models.

The Horsebit 1955 in Demetra includes a heavy metal- and chrome-free tanning process, and hardware is sourced with at least 30 percent recycled brass alloys and finishes containing 100 percent recycled gold and palladium. Other elements include certified cotton lining, and in one iteration, certified hemp and Econyl lining made from regenerated nylon where the Econyl used comes from manufacturing offcuts that have been upcycled via the Gucci-Up program; Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals-compliant dye and pigments, and recycled cotton dust bags with details in recycled polyester.

The company said the material has no impediments to scalability or limitations on volume.

Demetra does not replace leather but is an animal-free option that Gucci can incorporate across its collections, as it can be used for all categories of products, from footwear and accessories to handbags and apparel.

Demetra is made at Gucci’s factory Gruppo Colonna based in Tuscany. As a joint venture with Gucci since October 2019, the fashion house owns 51 percent of Gruppo Colonna. As part of Gucci’s commitment, any remaining greenhouse gas emissions associated with Demetra are translated into protecting and restoring forests and biodiversity.

In its 2022 Gucci Equilibrium Impact Report published in July, the house’s 2022 environmental profit and loss results revealed that Gucci reduced its absolute greenhouse gas emissions in scopes 1 and 2 of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol by 90 percent and its scope 3 emissions by 70 percent per unit of value added by 2030, from a 2015 baseline. In 2022, Gucci made good progress to reach these goals, achieving a 68 percent absolute reduction in scopes 1 and 2, with a 55 percent intensity reduction in scope 3.

Demetra is a patented and trademarked material, whose name was chosen by former creative director Alessandro Michele, inspired by Greek mythology and Demeter, the goddess of agriculture and new harvest, given its plant-based foundation.

The decision gives Evergrande another shot at working out a restructuring plan to ensure its survival

China Evergrande EGRNQ -27.27%decrease; red down pointing triangle has been given another chance to restructure its billions of dollars in debt as a court adjourned a hearing to wind up the company.

The heavily indebted Chinese property developer said that a Hong Kong High Court had moved the hearing, scheduled on Monday, to Dec. 4.

The decision gives Evergrande, one of China’s largest developers, another shot at working out a restructuring plan to ensure its survival. Evergrande, which has more than $300 billion of liabilities, said on Oct. 20 that it was still working with creditors to revise the terms of a proposed debt restructuring.

Hong Kong-listed shares of the developer were up 5.1% at 25 Hong Kong cents (3.2 U.S. cents) at the midday trading break, after having dropped as much as 23% earlier.

ECB’s Andrea Enria says lack of cross-border integration increases costs for customers

The increasing fragmentation of Europe’s banking system is a “faultline” that heightens financial vulnerability and saddles everyone with higher costs, the European Central Bank’s outgoing head of supervision Andrea Enria has warned.

Enria, who is stepping down at the end of this year after five years as the ECB’s chair of supervision, told the Financial Times his biggest “personal regret” was how the banking market of the 20-country eurozone was becoming “more and more segmented along national lines”.

“We still maintain this sort of [national] faultline in our institutional arrangements, in terms of integration and in terms of the safety net,” he said. “That’s the main issue that we should fix.”

Enria added that the faultline created an “element of risk”.

“If you have a shock hitting a part of the banking union, the banking sector doesn’t work as it could as a shock absorber by absorbing losses in one country through profits in another country,” he said.

Banks across Europe have been criticised for not passing on the sharp rise in interest rates to depositors as fast as they have increased the cost of loans. The gap between loan and savings rates has boosted lenders’ profits and prompted some countries, such as Spain and Italy, to introduce windfall taxes on the sector.

Enria said this was in part down to the lack of cross-border competition across the single currency bloc. “If you have more competition, if you have a more integrated market, that will be much more beneficial for customers of banks, both depositors and borrowers,” he said.

The 62-year-old Italian has been a driving force in the integration of Europe’s financial market. He was the first head of the European Banking Authority for eight years before joining the ECB. EU leaders recently approved the appointment of Claudia Buch, vice-president of Germany’s central bank, to succeed him at the end of December.

The single supervisory mechanism was created in 2014 to harmonise oversight of banking across the currency bloc in response to the region’s sovereign debt crisis a decade ago. It monitors the bloc’s 110 biggest and most systemically important banks.

Eurozone lenders were relatively untroubled by turmoil in the sector in March, when several US lenders collapsed including Silicon Valley Bank and a liquidity crisis at Credit Suisse forced it into the arms of its rival UBS.

However, Enria said the upheaval in the sector “really scared me” because of how “investors go to the next weak link” in a crisis by betting against a bank’s share price or by buying insurance against a debt default. This had “an immediate negative impact on the behaviour of institutional and corporate treasurers” who pull deposits from banks seen as vulnerable.

He said supervisors “need to put a lot of attention on these type of dynamics” in particular by scrutinising “the funding and liquidity risk of banks much more than we have done in the past”. Watchdogs should also tighten up oversight of governance and business models, which “are the drivers that attract the attacks from investors”.

For much of the past decade there have been failed attempts to complete the eurozone’s banking union by agreeing a common deposit guarantee scheme for the bloc. Enria said this was “totally mired in a cobweb of red lines by member states”. But even without it, he said EU lawmakers could do more to encourage banks to expand across national borders.

There was “an element of myopia” both by national regulators, who under appreciated the benefits of integration, and by banks, who are not doing enough to make banking union “work at its best”, he said, appealing for “more courage” on both sides.

Bank executives say they cannot create truly pan-eurozone businesses because, while the ECB handles the prudential regulation across the bloc, they must deal with a patchwork of national authorities’ different rules on conduct.

Enria hinted more conduct oversight could be brought under the ECB’s remit, adding this could boost the EU’s capital markets union project, the bloc’s long-running drive to fully integrate its financial system. “If you want a capital markets union, you need to make bolder steps also in the direction of integration of supervision on the conduct side,” he said.

Global regulators are seeking to clamp down on risks outside the banking sector among hedge funds, private equity and crypto exchanges. Enria said the initial approach had been to control risks by heaping additional requirements on the banks who finance the “shadow banking” ecosystem.

Watchdogs are discussing whether the “regulatory perimeter” should be expanded to include more direct supervision of other entities including those offering a panoply of bank-like services that are in effect acting as “virtual banks”. Enria stressed he was not arguing to expand the ECB’s powers.

Big Oil’s transatlantic strategy gulf has never been wider — and that is OK

Mega-deals in the US make sense, but it’s not obvious why European groups should scale up too

An old industry joke about Hess, based according to the New York Times in 1972 on the family patriarch’s work ethic, was that the company name stood for holidays, evenings, Saturdays and Sundays.

Sector advisers know the feeling. Two mammoth oil and gas deals, Exxon buying Pioneer for $60bn then Chevron buying Hess for $53bn, have ignited the deals market and set off another round of soul-searching about who is doing what in the net zero transition.

The megadeals appear to be doubling down on a resilient outlook for oil demand — an approach to transition that presumes it isn’t going to happen in a meaningful way. But the combinations make sense in other scenarios too. Big Oil is using its richly-valued shares to buy good assets held by companies with a higher cost of equity. More flexible, domestic barrels in terms of Pioneer’s shale acreage are useful in an uncertain world. So is the ability to operate more efficiently and prune lower-quality assets from portfolios as the outlook changes.

One conclusion has been that the European sector will have to respond to this upscaling of their rivals. It’s not obvious why. Sure, Exxon’s deal will create a production juggernaut 50 per cent bigger than Shell on Rystad Energy’s 2023 numbers and 75 per cent bigger than BP. But there aren’t other growth assets like Hess’s crown jewel in Guyana out there to buy. Nor do Europe’s pumpers have the highly rated stock to engineer acquisitions at toppy prices. 

Investor scepticism around the European sector’s decision to invest into the energy transition rather than ignore it won’t be solved by putting two together. Other than the death-throes defeatism of “get bigger and cut costs” (and hey, that may come), it’s not clear what mergers would achieve.

Another oddity is the idea that US companies’ conviction in their oily future should derail European investment in transition businesses. Leave aside the reality of operating in a different market, where social legitimacy requires different choices. It would be downright strange if, faced with the kind of drastic uncertainty about the outlook for oil and gas, everyone opted for identikit strategies. 

Forecasts that range from 15 per cent growth in oil demand to 2045 (Opec) to a collapse of 75 per cent by 2050 (one International Energy Agency scenario) should not generate unanimity of response. Nor do the competing forces of continued demand growth, political ructions and energy security concerns versus booming renewables investment, biofuels demand and accelerating electric vehicle adoption produce a slam dunk victor. 

Upstream-friendly mutterings by both BP and Shell this year somewhat mask the strategic gulf across the Atlantic. BP is working towards putting 40 per cent of its investment into low carbon areas by 2025, now more weighted to biofuels and EV charging than renewables. Depending on where Shell ends up in its various ranges, its figures are 15-23 per cent, with the US majors barely out of single digits. That spending will be refined — based on returns but also, as with Shell’s job cuts in its light hydrogen mobility division for passenger cars this week, on what technology triumphs in different areas. 

These efforts, argues Oswald Clint at Bernstein, are starting to bear fruit in wind projects and carbon capture agreements, which belie the gloom about the likely returns on offer. The European sector has (whisper it) outperformed the US over the past year, with a once-whopping valuation discount narrowing on a forward-price earnings basis. A chunk of what remains reflects a more richly-valued US market generally, even excluding technology. 

At the very least, given the sector has outperformed the European market, there should be investors who might like fossil fuel cash flows (and the higher prices likely from low investment) while enjoying the warm glow of financing transition — especially as new business lines (hopefully) become more substantial towards 2030.

The companies’ conviction of two years ago that they have the technical nous, project experience, trading businesses and end-to-end system knowledge to make transition work should still apply. But it is going to be increasingly hard to instil belief on that front while also cosplaying as a Texas oilman. “Sometimes it feels like I’m the one trying to get companies excited about their strategy, rather than the other way around,” said one Europe-based investor. 

Changing that impression may still require Hess-like effort — 24/7.

Diverging paths of David Solomon and Sixth Street’s Alan Waxman shown in deal over GreenSky consumer lending unit

David Solomon started at Goldman Sachs in 1999, joining in his mid-30s from the scruffy Bear Stearns, as a partner in the junk bond group of the investment bank he now runs. Alan Waxman came to Goldman’s 85 Broad Street headquarters just a year earlier, fresh with an undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Their respective careers journeys since the late 1990s recently converged in an intriguing way.

Waxman is the co-founder and chief executive of Sixth Street Partners, the private capital firm he launched in 2009 after his Goldman departure and that now manages more than $70bn. Sixth Street just acquired GreenSky, a consumer lending business, from Goldman for a song, less than $500mn. The deal marked comprehensive retrenchment in Goldman’s main street ambition — the bank had only bought GreenSky for more than $2bn two years ago, in a deal championed by Solomon himself. 

Solomon’s tenure can be characterised as rocky, at best. Turnover of staff at Goldman Sachs is common but the pace of senior departures in recent years has struck even jaded Wall Street hands as unusually brisk.

More generally, with the rise of private capital and Silicon Valley, the top brains in finance, whether young or seasoned, have increasingly compelling options outside of big banks, which are facing the unyielding demands of regulators, politicians, shareholders and the general public.

Shareholders of Goldman Sachs could fairly wonder if that among these two late-1990s joiners, if they would have preferred to have kept Waxman instead of Solomon. But the related question is if someone had the obvious talent of Waxman, why would they want to ply their trade at Goldman Sachs for decades? Are the big banks then otherwise stuck with a pool of executives who simply could not get a better job somewhere else?

This may be a false dichotomy. Waxman starred in Goldman’s famed special situations group that managed distressed debt and made complex loans. He left Goldman just as it became a bank holding company and before the introduction of the Volcker rules on proprietary trading — changes that tamped down on risky activities. Sixth Street itself then has benefited from growth in so-called shadow banking that happens outside of the traditional banking regulatory oversight.

An executive at a big bank is probably better suited for somebody who is interested in taming complex organisations, managing risk diversification and gladhanding a variety of disparate constituencies.

James Gorman of Morgan Stanley and Jane Fraser of Citigroup are each former McKinsey management consultants. JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon got his start out of business school wheeling and dealing in regional banks as the apprentice of Sandy Weill.   

One longtime Goldman executive now in private equity said being a successful banker or trader was far different than being an effective manager, even if usually one could only ascend to a leadership post by first being a respected producer. Solomon, as previous head of investment banking for Goldman, maintained its dominance in securities underwriting as well as mergers and acquisitions advisory.

“Alan could never run the 45,000 people at Goldman,” said this person who maintained he was a huge admirer of Waxman’s accomplishments. “He is an investor first.”

Waxman probably would not want to be, either, given that Sixth Street investment returns have made him a tycoon without any byzantine bureaucracy to master. The Sixth Street founder recently poached from Goldman a former close colleague, Julian Salisbury, who like Waxman, is a highly accomplished investor. Waxman declined to comment.

Goldman insiders dispute any talent deficit. One 30-year veteran told me that its core trading and investment banking businesses were more profitable and dominant than ever. Moreover, the level of commercial and social prestige from carrying a Goldman business card remained unmatched by virtually other employer. This person also wryly noted that there were plenty of Goldman veterans who underwhelmed professionally after leaving the firm. 

Still, among the important tasks of any chief executive is the allocation of shareholder capital. And in the GreenSky transaction, Waxman will almost certainly get the better of Solomon, though perhaps it will be of some comfort to Goldmanites that the Sixth Street founder is an alumnus of a bank that taught him much of what he knows.

Company vows to be ‘pin-up’ for Future Fund scheme that lent money to start-ups during pandemic

The founder of a sex party planner that is part-owned by the UK government through a pandemic-era start-up fund has vowed it will be a “pin-up” for the scheme and turn a profit for the British taxpayer thanks to its pivot towards a new dating app.

Killing Kittens in April rebranded its main business as WeAreX to coincide with the launch of an app of the same name that offers “social dating for sex positive people” as well as tickets to adult events. That followed a move late last year to carve its sex party business out as a wholly owned subsidiary.

The rejig of its corporate structure to focus on a new dating app was aimed at smoothing a profitable exit for investors including the UK government, which holds a 1.5 per cent stake in the company through its Future Fund. The scheme, which launched in April 2020, has faced criticism for ill-fated investments in start-ups.

Emma Sayle, WeAreX’s co-founder who started Killing Kittens in 2005, said splitting the businesses would ease a sale of the dating app to a larger rival within the next three to five years and help the government turn a profit on its £170,000 loan to the company, which was converted into equity last year.

“We’re the pin-up for the Future Fund and how it should be done,” said Sayle. She pointed to Match Group, which owns legacy dating platforms including Match.com and Plenty of Fish, as a potential buyer. Match has retained market dominance by buying up younger apps including Tinder, Hinge and The League.

The WeAreX app has gained 47,000 active monthly users since launch, of which about a third pay for a £24.99 monthly or £119.99 annual subscription, contributing to revenues over the past year of roughly £1mn. Killing Kittens’ events separately generated roughly £700,000 in revenues over the same period.

“The online side is very easy to see who would buy it,” said Sayle. “When you had it all lumped into one business and you’re talking about . . . mergers and acquisitions or exiting . . . the Killing Kittens party side of it is a harder sell.”

On the whole, the 1,191 promising tech and early-stage businesses to which the state-backed British Business Bank advanced £1.1bn of loans have struggled. As of the end of September, 146 businesses backed by the fund had been declared insolvent, losing the government £138mn. The government has generated £48mn from 55 corporate exits.

“As venture capital is long-term term investment, it is far too early to give an indication of the overall Future Fund portfolio performance,” the British Business Bank said.

Hadleigh Bolt, WeAreX’s chief operating officer, said the move into online dating offered the possibility of “more explosive growth, more avenues to enter into new markets and more routes to exit”, which would “ultimately make more money for the UK government”.

Sayle said WeAreX had a “niche which the bigger dating apps don’t have”. Unlike some bigger rivals, it only allows verified profiles as well as offering chat rooms where users can discuss sexual fetishes. It is also developing an ad platform for adult brands that counts sex toy company Lelo among its clients, and runs an e-ticketing platform for other adult events, which Sayle billed as the “Ticketmaster or Eventbrite for the sex-positive world”.

Dating apps have increasingly sought to appeal to a broader audience beyond heterosexual monogamous relationships. London-based Feeld has pitched itself as a sex-positive platform for all sexual orientations, while Hinge and Tinder recently rolled out features for users to seek non-monogamous matches.

WeAreX is working on an equity raise of at least £250,000 from retail investors that would value the business at £15mn, up from £14.5mn when the government took its 1.5 per cent stake last year. WeAreX is also targeting an up to £5mn series A funding round in 2025, as it builds towards a fivefold rise in group revenues to £9mn by the end of 2026, according to an investor document seen by the Financial Times.

Former Marvel Entertainment executive Ike Perlmutter says he can ‘no longer watch the business underachieve its great potential’

Billionaire and former Marvel executive Isaac “Ike” Perlmutter offered moral and logistical support to his friend Nelson Peltz last year when the activist investor campaigned for big changes at Disney DIS -0.56%decrease; red down pointing triangle.

As Peltz prepares a fresh challenge to the company, Perlmutter is proving to be a key financial ally, too.

Perlmutter said he has entrusted his stake in Disney to Peltz’s Trian Fund Management as it prepares to press the company for multiple board seats. Trian’s holding in the company totals about 33 million shares, including stock that the investment firm controls under an arrangement that gives Peltz’s firm sole voting power over Perlmutter’s shares, according to people familiar with the matter.

Trian’s Disney stake, a holding that The Wall Street Journal previously reported is worth upward of $2.5 billion, includes shares held by Trian funds and outside investors. Perlmutter’s shares represent the majority of the stock that Trian currently controls.

Aided by Perlmutter’s shares, Peltz’s Trian now has nearly four times as many shares to vote than the investment firm had during the first campaign, which means more muscle to press Disney CEO Bob Iger for board seats or other changes. The specter of Peltz’s renewed campaign represents one of several challenges Iger faces as Disney shares trade at their lowest level in nearly a decade.

Disney declined to comment.

Perlmutter became one of Disney’s largest independent shareholders when he sold Marvel to the entertainment giant for $4 billion in 2009. Perlmutter told the Journal he plans to urge Disney’s board to accept one or more of Trian’s board nominees, including Peltz.

Peltz hasn’t officially launched a fresh proxy battle against Disney—the nominating window for Disney’s board of directors opens in December—but he could do so if the board resists adding him as a director. Peltz is expected to seek multiple board seats, up from one last year, the Journal reported.

Trian isn’t seeking to add Perlmutter, who was chairman of Marvel Entertainment until March, to Disney’s board, nor is the firm asking Disney to rehire him, the people said.

“While I was a Disney employee, I was not comfortable publicly stating my views on the company and its performance,” Perlmutter said in a statement. “As someone with a large economic interest in Disney’s success, I can no longer watch the business underachieve its great potential.”

Peltz and Perlmutter are neighbors in Palm Beach, Fla., and frequently dine together with their wives.

Perlmutter said he plans to urge Disney’s board to “immediately welcome one or more Trian board candidates” and believes Peltz and Trian could help Disney improve its operations and strategy and achieve better results for shareholders.

Perlmutter said he has purchased but hasn’t sold Disney stock since the 2009 Marvel acquisition.

Perlmutter aims to donate family wealth to further medical research and hospital care, and an increase in the value of his Disney holdings will allow him to do more of this, he said. He and his wife Laurie have been active donors to medical charities and healthcare institutions including New York University’s Langone Medical Center.

Disney’s board members, excluding Iger, collectively own under $15 million worth of stock in the company, according to FactSet. Iger owns around $15 million in shares and has sold much of the stock he has received over the past two decades.

During Peltz’s initial campaign, Trian accumulated around nine million Disney shares and nominated Peltz to the board in a proxy campaign. Peltz called in proxy materials for Disney to cut spending, including executive pay, and criticized directors who he said had backed unwise strategic decisions and botched succession planning at the company.

Perlmutter assisted with the campaign by calling Disney directors and brokering meetings between Peltz and then-CEO Bob Chapek. Peltz called off his earlier campaign in February after Iger, who returned to the CEO job in November to replace Chapek, announced $5.5 billion in budget cuts and a head count reduction of 7,000 positions.

Trian hoped that with time, Disney’s cuts and other restructuring moves as well as new initiatives would result in improved operating performance. So far, changes at the company haven’t boosted Disney’s share price, which has languished below $100 per share for much of the year. On Friday, it closed at $79.33.

Perlmutter and Iger have long had an acrimonious relationship. Perlmutter, who made his fortune doing turnarounds of bankrupt and distressed retailers, believes that profligacy can kill a company if left unchecked. He pestered studio executives at Disney for years to spend less on Marvel Studios superhero movies, even offering script notes about how to save money on props and reduce runtime.

In 2015, after a dispute over budgets and movie slates between Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige and the studio’s creative committee, which was led by Perlmutter and his allies, Iger sided with Feige and removed Perlmutter from his position overseeing the studio.

Perlmutter was terminated from his job running Marvel’s comic-book publishing and licensing businesses in March, a move Disney said at the time was part of the cost-cutting efforts. Perlmutter told the Journal in an interview that he was fired.

“I have no doubt that my termination was based on fundamental differences in business between my thinking and Disney leadership, because I care about return on investment,” Perlmutter said at the time. Both Iger and Perlmutter have acknowledged in recent interviews that their relationship is strained.