Glass Lewis backs McDonald’s directors in boardroom fight with Carl Icahn
By Svea Herbst-Bayliss
BOSTON (Reuters) – Proxy advisory agency Glass Lewis on Tuesday really helpful McDonald’s Corp traders vote for the corporate’s administrators, dealing a setback to billionaire investor Carl Icahn’s efforts to interchange two administrators.
“The Dissident (Icahn) has did not make a sufficiently compelling case to warrant the boardroom modifications it’s in search of right here,” Glass Lewis wrote within the report seen by Reuters.
A consultant for Icahn didn’t instantly have a remark.
The report got here at some point after Institutional Shareholder Companies, Glass Lewis’ bigger rival, additionally really helpful that shareholders again the corporate’s nominees. McDonald’s shareholders will meet on Could 26.
Icahn nominated candidates to the fast-food restaurant’s board to carry the corporate accountable for pledges it made a decade in the past on sourcing pork.
McDonald’s says it has labored to alter its pork sourcing. However it’s not on time on a plan to cease shopping for pork from suppliers that confine pigs in small crates throughout being pregnant. Each ISS and Glass Lewis say Icahn has raised consciousness for animal rights.
“We acknowledge (Icahn’s) efforts to hunt enhancements to animal welfare circumstances is a worthy and noble endeavor,” Glass Lewis wrote. However the advisory agency additionally criticized Icahn, saying he had taken a “decidedly simplistic and myopic view of ESG issues, with no substantive regard given to the economics of the Firm’s enterprise nor to the creation of shareholder worth.”
McDonald’s mentioned Icahn’s two nominees lack the broader experience wanted to serve on the corporate’s board. Glass Lewis wrote that Icahn’s candidates “lack the requisite background, {qualifications} and expertise for serving on the board of a giant multinational agency” like McDonald’s.
(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Enhancing by Chris Reese and Cynthia Osterman)
