AkzoNobel shares were by far the biggest gainers on the AEX index on Friday on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, where the paint and coatings manufacturer benefited from a notice from the Dutch financial markets regulator AFM that Swedish activist fund Cevian Capital now holds over 3% of its capital.

At 3:40 p.m., the owner of the Dulux brand was up over 5.5%, compared with a 0.6% gain for the AEX at the same time.

According to the notice published on the AFM website, the Cevian Capital II Master Fund LP fund reported that on August 20, it had exceeded the 3% threshold of capital and voting rights and held 5,163,247 shares representing the same number of voting rights, or 3.02% of the capital and voting rights.

This notification comes after AkzoNobel reported disappointing quarterly results earlier this month, due to the strength of the euro, which caused the share price to fall to a three-month low. At current levels, the share price is up 3% since the beginning of the year, in line with the performance of the STOXX Europe 600 Chemicals sector index.

Cevian, which is a shareholder in ABB, Ericsson and Rexel, among others, defines itself as a long-term strategic investor with a simple objective: to make the companies in its portfolio better and more valuable.

Its investment approach generally consists of taking significant minority stakes in European listed companies that it believes are market leaders, generate strong cash flows, benefit from positive long-term structural trends, but are overlooked, misunderstood or neglected by investors.

These companies generally have a sound operating base, but Cevian believes they have significant untapped potential: room for improvement and value creation, the fund explains.