Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund Management has enlisted an intriguing ally for its proxy fight with Proctor & Gamble. The activist hedge fund firm has hired Clayton Daley, a former chief financial officer at the packaged goods company, as a consultant and will pay $250,000 to his family’s foundation. In a video posted Monday on revitalizepg.com, a website created by Trian, Daley expressed his support for P&G. But he also stressed that over the past six to eight years, “it’s been very frustrating – frustrating for me, and I know frustrating for shareholders and retirees as well."Daley said he has never worked with an activist and even turned down Pershing Square’s Bill Ackman in 2012, when the hedge fund founder asked him to join his activist campaign at the company. It’s time “to do something different” to boost the value of the stock, said Daley, who called Peltz a highly engaged shareholder. “He understands how to build value for the long term. He is engaged in how to improve systemic results of the company,” Daley said.
The newly hired consultant said that Peltz is not recommending cutting R&D, marketing or brand-building activities, and is not splitting the company or suggesting financial engineering. “I’ve talked to a lot of current and former Procter & Gamble employees,” Daley said. “I know for a fact that some retirees have had to change their retirement plans because the stock has not performed in line with the expectations they had when they retired. How long can shareholders and retirees wait?”
Trian has nominated Peltz to the board of directors. P&G’s annual meeting is scheduled for October 10.
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Davidson Kempner disclosed that as of August 16 it owned 1.8 million shares of Capitol Investment Corp. IV, or 5.14 percent of the blank check company formed and led by Mark Ein. It is Ein’s fourth blank check company, also known as a SPAC, or special purpose acquisition company. Earlier Ein-led SPACs acquired Two Harbors Investment Corp., Lindblad Expeditions and Cision. Davidson Kempner has been one of the most active hedge fund investors in SPACs over the years.
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D.E. Shaw has more than doubled its stake in Liberty Media Corp.’s series A Liberty SiriusXM shares to 5 percent of the common stock class, according to a regulatory filing.
