Too stodgy by far
Peltz stirring up P&G proxy battle
Nelson Peltz is waging the biggest proxy fight ever against Procter & Gamble, the consumer-products giant behind Gillette and Pampers.
The billionaire corporate raider’s $12.7 billion hedge fund, Trian Partners, said Monday that Peltz wants a seat on P&G’s board as it blasted the company’s management as “highly resistant to change,” even as the company has lost market share amid lackluster sales and profits.
“I can add far more value operating within the P&G boardroom than by merely looking in from the outside,” Peltz said in a Monday statement.
Proxy filings disclosed that Trian, which has a $3.3 billion stake in the $224 billion company, tussled with P&G’s leadership several times over the past five months and that it sought representation on the company’s board as early as May.
In those meetings, the hedge fund critiqued P&G’s underperformance relative to peers and suggested that P&G pursue a leaner organizational structure, which would result in a “reduced level of bureaucracy,” according to the Monday filing.
Trian also said that P&G should make some outside hires to chip away at the company’s “insular” corporate culture.
In a June phone call, however, P&G told Peltz he wouldn’t be asked to join the company’s board. And in a July 11 teleconference, Peltz was told that Trian’s representation on the board was “unnecessary in light of recent initiatives undertaken by the company,” according to the Monday filing.
P&G acknowledged Trian’s filings Monday and said that it has maintained “an active and constructive dialogue” with the hedge fund.
The company also said that Trian did not provide “new or actionable ideas” for P&G beyond the company’s already announced strategic plan.
The hedge fund said its hope was to create long-term sustainable value at P&G and that it had no plans to replace the chief executive and board members, or break up the company.