New disclosure rules issued by the nation’s securities regulators are a “big win” for companies while changes to proxy contest rules will open the floodgates to traditional and nontraditional activists nominating director candidates.

That’s the view of Jim Rossman, a co-head of capital markets advisory at Lazard Ltd., who spoke with the Activist Investing Today podcast about a new Securities and Exchange Commission proposal requiring that activists disclose their ownership stakes faster and in more circumstances in so-called 13D filings.

“People like myself and lawyers who advise companies on activist defense have for years been pushing for a shorter disclosure for when activists go over 5% ownership of the stock,” Rossman told AIT. “Companies have such limited information today about who owns their stock currently, and 13Ds are the best way for us to find out if an activist owns 5% of a company’s stock.”

Faster disclosure can help corporations “get a sense” of whether there is a real threat, and corporations can install anti-activist poison pills “before accumulations get much higher,” Rossman explained.

Rossman also said he expects a new rule scheduled to take effect in August giving institutional investors more flexibility to pick and choose incumbent and dissident candidates will be “one of the biggest changes” he’s ever seen affecting shareholder activism.

“It lowers the barrier to nominating a dissident candidate for a company’s board. It takes the cost of doing that to almost zero,” he said. “With this new rule, the activist can force the company to include their candidates on their card. All of the candidates are listed in one place, and you don’t have to go to the meeting to access the card; you can do it from your home sitting in front of your computer.”

Rossman said it will result in a significant increase in shareholder activists nominating candidates for the board and it will inspire nontraditional activists, such as labor groups and environmental investors, to nominate candidates as well.

Check out the podcast with Jim Rossman here:

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