NEW YORK (Reuters) – Hedge fund Third Point LLC, which sometimes pushes companies to perform better, said it is beginning to look more closely at corporate governance issues, including executive pay, as it evaluates future investments.

“More carefully and systematically studying governance is giving us a new analytical lens and validating our conviction that good governance makes good companies, and vice versa,” the hedge fund wrote to investors in a quarterly letter seen by Reuters on Wednesday.

The $14.5 billion fund, which has been pushing food company Nestle SA to untangle its corporate structure and streamline its portfolio, is seen as an occasional activist with a record of having earned a 300 percent return on these types of bets in the last eight years.

As delivering top returns becomes tougher for hedge funds, Third Point, run by Daniel Loeb, is telling investors that it is good at activism and is using data to become even better.

“We are currently developing methods to systematize our governance practice, including by adding data analytics to our research process,” the letter said.

Good governance has become a hot-button issue as investors react to companies where management teams are falling behind while sticking to the status quo and their boards that fail to correct the damage.

Third Point said in its letter that some board members “make decisions to preserve their status and income stream rather than to drive shareholder value.”

Since 2000, Third Point said it has engaged in 45 active or constructive investments and won 24 board seats. It also said that it views every activist investment as “an opportunity for value creation driven in part by improved governance and advocacy for shareholder rights.”

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