Activist investor Carl Icahn drops proxy fight over Kroger’s pig policy – WSJ
(Reuters) -Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is dropping a proxy combat targeted on the remedy of pregnant pigs at Kroger Co after shedding an analogous combat with McDonald’s Corp final month, Wall Avenue Journal reported on Sunday.
“I congratulate the McDonald’s staff on their victory on this proxy engagement and, after a lot contemplation, given the corporate’s monetary place, I imagine the identical consequence will end result at Kroger,” Icahn stated in a letter he plans to ship to the shareholders of each firms that was seen by the Journal.
The activist investor in March nominated two administrators to the grocery store chain’s board and wrote a letter to its boss declaring Kroger’s lack of ability to create insurance policies regarding animal welfare and criticizing its wage disparities.
Icahn, a billionaire who owns roughly $50,000 value of McDonald’s inventory, had additionally nominated two director candidates to push the fast-food chain to make good on a decade-old promise to cease shopping for pork by the tip of this yr from suppliers that home the animals in crates.
He has stated confining the pigs in crates throughout their being pregnant is inhumane and sought to shine a highlight on the follow extra broadly. The boardroom battle ended when shareholders re-elected all of McDonald’s administrators.
Icahn wrote within the letter seen by WSJ that these campaigns have been totally different from his typical fights contemplating that the 2 firms are performing effectively financially, which makes it much less probably the campaigns would achieve satisfactory shareholder assist.
“We’ll proceed to interact with stakeholders and shareholders to tell our insurance policies and guarantee we’re effectively positioned to realize our targets,” a Kroger spokesperson stated in an emailed response to the report.
Representatives for Icahn didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark outdoors common enterprise hours.
(Reporting by Ann Maria Shibu in Bengaluru; Extra reporting by Sneha Bhowmik; Enhancing by Sam Holmes and Rashmi Aich)
