On the latest Activist Investing Today, John Karageorge discussed how the activist defense surveillance group at S&P Global Inc. (SPGI) identifies activist accumulations before public disclosures or breaking news reports.

Karageorge said the surveillance group at S&P Global, parent of The Deal LLC, combines proprietary datasets with surveillance models to identify equity and derivatives accumulations by activist investors who often accumulate total return swaps to evade securities reporting obligations. The S&P Global activist defense surveillance group offers services to corporations in the U.S., Canada, Europe and is expanding to other markets including Japan.

Activists such as Elliott Management Corp. often accumulate swaps by striking contracts with multiple foreign banking counterparties to build economic positions while delaying disclosure, giving companies only a narrow window to prepare before engagement, Karageorge said.

The discussion also examined the strategic value of derivatives, as well as recent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission guidance on swap disclosures and whether it could discourage activists from accumulating more than 4.9% in swaps.

Listen to the podcast with John Karageorge below:

More podcasts from The Deal are available on iTunes, Spotify and on TheDeal.com.