Harwood Capital and the Wellcome Trust have placed their substantial shareholdings in The Quarto Group, drawing a line under a long period of on-off activism dating back for more than 12 years. Just below six million shares, representing 30.9% of non-treasury equity, have been placed with a broad spread of well-known institutional shareholders. This implies a meaningful uplift in the free float, with potential improvement in liquidity in the shares – one of the key hurdles that needed to be overcome for the rating to better reflect commercial prospects.