Nuveen's Dave Lamb on how fund firms are reacting to increased activism

Dave Lamb, Head of Closed-End Funds at Nuveen, says there is a "much more aggressive form of activism today than what we saw years ago," and notes that it's driven entirely by discount-arbitrage opportunities rather than whether a fund is underperforming due to management decision-making. With discounts at wide levels — particularly for fixed-income funds — sponsors like Nuveen are taking more steps to cut the gap and reduce their funds' attractiveness to activists. Lamb discusses Nuveen's strategies, which he says are largely focused on enhanced distribution tactics, trying to drive demand, and narrow the discount. Nuveen recently announced plans to increase distributions on more than two dozen funds.