SSE may not need to split now but it does need more clean energy expertise

Activist investor Elliott Management is right - if SSE wants to be the UK renewables champion it needs green heavyweights on boardElliott Management's open letters are improving. When the US activist hedge fund tried to take a pop at GlaxoSmithKline in the summer, it produced 17 pages of waffle that could have been condensed to a few sentences of substance. Tuesday's 10-page blast at energy group SSE was tighter, scored a couple of solid hits and should make newish chairman Sir John Manzoni realise the Perth-based firm is in a scrap.That is not to say Elliott is right on every score, or even on its main demand that SSE should be split in two. Indeed, one of the activist's points was plainly exaggerated - the idea that an "unequivocal message" was sent by the 4% fall in SSE's share price on the day last month when the Perth-based company unveiled its energy transition strategy alongside a delayed dividend cut. Continue reading...