Shares of Getty Images Holdings Inc. GETY got a 5.7% boost in premarket trading Tuesday, after activist investor Trillium Capital LLC urged the visual content creator to increase shareholder value by selling the company. Trillium, which said it owned “hundreds of thousand shares” of Getty stock and stock equivalents, said the company’s board has not acted on “obvious opportunities” to increase shareholder value, as the stock has tumbled since the Getty went public. After the $4.8 billion acquisition deal by special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) CC Neuberger Principal Holdings II closed on July 22, 2022, the stock closed as high as $33.93 on Aug. 15, but closed on Monday 80.8% below that price at $6.50. The S&P 500 SPX has lost 4.4% over the same time. “We strongly believe that using the Enterprise Value Model, that the value of Getty should be about $1.1 billion higher than it is currently trading and that its stock price should be trading about 100% higher than it currently trades,” Trillium said. Among Trillium’s recommendations to Getty’s board to boost value are a sale of the company to a strategic buyer, a sale to a private equity player and have the three largest shareholders (the Getty Family, Koch Icon Investments and CC Neuberger Principal Holdings) take the company private.
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