Billionaire activist investor Peltz open to more buyouts

By David French

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Nelson Peltz is looking to go back to his roots with Trian Fund Management and could buy more companies outright in the future, the billionaire investor said on Tuesday.

One of the best-known activist investors, Peltz helped found Trian in 2005 and has since campaigned to oust management and board members and change strategy at companies including Walt Disney DIS.N, Kraft Heinz KHC.O and Procter & Gamble PG.N.

Trian and investment firm General Catalyst agreed in December to buy Janus Henderson JHG.N for $7.4 billion, the culmination of a more than five-year investment by Trian that started out as activism.

Peltz told the WSJ Invest Live event in West Palm Beach, Florida, that the Janus deal harkened back to successful buyout investments earlier in his career, and market conditions were conducive for further dealmaking.

"We used to buy all of a company, and I liked doing that as I don't have to do a dance for a boardroom," Peltz said, noting it allowed changes at a company to be implemented quicker than taking a stake and negotiating with an existing board.

"Prices have become more reasonable, deals are becoming more productive. So we can do things the way we like to do them."

TRUMP TARIFFS

The billionaire hedge fund manager said that while he liked a lot of things which U.S. President Donald Trump has done during his second term, he disagreed with his use of tariff policy and how it has been focused on revenue generation, instead of promoting free trade.

"I think he is using tariffs the wrong way," he said.

"I was hoping that the threat of tariffs was going to lower tariffs, so we had closer to free trade between us and our trading partners, and not being used as a source of revenue."

He added that while there was still time for the course to be changed, tariff policy should help U.S. companies be more competitive, by bringing down the cost of selling U.S. cars in Germany for example.

(Reporting by David French in West Palm Beach, Florida. Editing by Mark Potter)

((davidj.french@tr.com))