Crystal amber in their own words4 Mar 2021 15:19
From outside it appears nothing more than another of the anonymously plush townhouses that stand silent sentry in Mayfair, London. But behind the dark front door of this eighteenth-century terrace building is the nerve centre of Crystal Amber, one of Britain's most feared activist investors.
When the investment fund appears on a firm's shareholder register, both the company's management and other investors can be guaranteed that the business in question is in line for a shake-up. The £230m listed fund, led by City veteran Richard Bernstein, has a record of triggering seismic change at the small and mid-cap companies where it builds stakes. Many of the firms it targets are eventually taken over. As a result, whenever Crystal Amber starts buying shares in a business, the City pays attention.
"The correlation between companies we invest in which are subsequently taken over is very high," muses Bernstein, dressed in a dark suit and shirt and sitting at a conference table in Crystal Amber's offices, just a few minutes walk from Hyde Park.