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Cincinnati.com – A New York City hedge fund pushing Chemed Corp. to split up its plumbing and hospice care businesses has filed its own slate of five directors for the downtown-based company’s May 18 shareholder’s meeting.
In filing its five nominees Thursday, MMI Investments, which last month urged Chemed to split up its businesses to increase investor returns, said it wasn’t seeking control of the 11-member board but "to obtain better representation of stockholders and enhance stockholder value.”
Charleston Daily Mail – The Greenbrier has been a powerful asset to West Virginia since before the state was a state. Its corporate parent today, Florida-based CSX Corp., recently announced that it has hired Goldman Sachs to make the resort a "viable entity."
The resort lost $35 million in 2008.
It’s easy to understand why CSX would want the Greenbrier, only one of its concerns, to earn its keep.
As the Wall Street Journal noted, the railroad industry is grappling with a severe drop in freight volume, the hospitality industry is in a serious slump, and CSX has been harried by hedge funds that questioned its investments and called for a management overhaul. That dispute put five new faces on the 12-member board.
Bizjournals.com- CSX Corp’s board is in for a bumpy ride despite assurances from the railroad and two rival hedge funds they will work together to maximize profitability, a railroad analyst said.
"Everyone is human and the proxy fight between them has gotten ugly at times," said Lee Klaskow, a Longbow Research senior analyst.
Four out of five of the nominees put forth by The Children’s Investment Fund Management LLP and 3G Capital Partners Ltd. have been voted in by shareholders, according to the independent inspector of the election’s preliminary report. As reported, the vote is a sound defeat for CSX CEO Michael Ward and his managment group, which fought hard to convince shareholders to avoid the candidiates backed by the hedge funds.
Klaskow said the board changes won’t change day-to-day operations, but they may affect long-term ones, as the hedge-fund-nominated members will likely make more aggressive proposals.
