Ashland and hedge fund Cruiser Capital (New York) today released dueling letters to shareholders in the run-up to Ashland’s 2019 annual meeting on 8 February. The letters reiterated and expanded upon prior claims that the two sides have made in a simmering proxy battle that began publicly in October. Ashland also says it will nominate Hexion CEO Craig Rogerson to its’ board at the annual meeting.
Cruiser, which owns a 2.5% stake in Ashland, claims that Ashland has mischaracterized its’ performance over the past few years, and has criticized Ashland’s corporate governance practices. The firm is aiming to unseat chairman and CEO William Wulfsohn from Ashland’s board, as well as Michael Ward, Brendan Cummins, and William Dempsey, all of whom are members of the board’s Governance and Nominating Committee. “We worry that a few board members in key roles on important committees – particularly the Governance and Nominating Committee – have an outsized influence and have hijacked the opportunity for Ashland to add world class executives to the board,” Cruiser says in its’ letter.
Cruiser also says that Ashland has “failed to adhere to [its] own corporate guidelines” regarding lead independent director Barry Perry, who is scheduled to step down at next month’s annual meeting. Perry has been Ashland’s lead independent director since 2010, despite a bylaw requiring board permission to extend the lead independent director’s term beyond three years.
Ashland says that, if Rogerson is elected, five the company’s 11 directors will have joined the board since the start of 2017. The company also criticized Cruiser, which it says “has not provided our board or management team with any new ideas to drive value.”
However, Ashland has not met with Cruiser’s four board nominees, according to the hedge fund. The four are Bill Joyce, Allen Spizzo, Carol Eicher and Pat Gottschalk.
By Vincent Valk
Source: Chemical Week
We are closing the chapter of the Chemicals Import Export Headquarters, and opening a new chapter under the name of Qemetica – a chemical group driving many industries on all continents. Therefore, the change of name is also accompanied by the adoption of the key goals of the business strategy for the next 6 years. – says Kamil Majczak, President of the Management Board.
In its efforts to advance chemical recycling, Neste has successfully conducted its first processing trial run with a new challenging raw material, liquefied discarded tires. In the processing run, Neste produced high-quality raw material for new plastics and chemicals.
Sika is opening a state-of-the-art facility in Lima, Peru, to produce synthetic macro fibers, and expanding the rollout of a product range with great growth potential in Latin America. With this innovative technology, Sika is further strengthening its position as a leading supplier to the mining industry and a strong partner for infrastructure projects.
