(Bloomberg) -- Activist investor Clearway Capital has acquired a minority stake in Ireland’s Glanbia Plc, people familiar with the matter said, after the food and nutritional products company last month released a weaker-than-expected outlook for the full year. 

Frankfurt-based Clearway may communicate with Glanbia’s management and propose a set of actions aimed at improving the company’s valuation, said the people, asking not to be named because the plans aren’t public.

Glanbia shares rose as much as 6.6%, the most since October of 2020, following the initial report by Bloomberg.

Even with Thursday’s gains, shares in Kilkenny, Ireland-based Glanbia have declined about 12% since January, compared with a 3.9% decline for the Stoxx Europe 600 Food & Beverage Index. Glanbia Cooperative Society, the company’s largest shareholder, is set to reduce its holding by distributing 12 million shares to its members. 

A spokesperson for Glanbia said the company does not comment on its share register, and “we continually engage with our shareholders on an ongoing basis.” A representative for Clearway declined to comment.

Clearway, founded in 2021 by Gianluca Ferrari, earlier this year pressured French energy major TotalEnergies SE to stop buying oil from Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. Ferrari also previously conducted activist campaigns affecting companies such as EDP Renovaveis SA, Greencore Group PLC and John Menzies PLC.

(Updates with shares in third paragraph.)

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