Aluminum giant sets date for delayed shareholder meeting

One of the bloodiest proxy contests of the season has a new end date.

Arconic, the aluminum parts manufacturer that has been under attack by hedge fund Elliott Management, will be holding its shareholder meeting May 25, nine days later than originally planned. The board also announced two new nominees to its board.

It is the latest chapter in what has become an unusually nasty fight between an activist fund and its target.

“Elliott has pursued a ‘win-at-any-cost’ approach and has turned activism into a blood sport,” Arconic said Thursday in an updated investor presentation.

Last month longtime Arconic CEO Klaus Kleinfeld was forced to resign after the board discovered that he sent an unauthorized letter to Elliott founder Paul Singer, which was interpreted as an attempt to extort Singer.

Arconic’s updated presentation on Thursday scrubbed Kleinfeld’s name from endorsements provided by Boeing, Airbus, GE Aviation and United Technologies and replaced it with ellipses.

Despite the circumstances of Kleinfeld’s exit, Arconic is still fighting to prevent the hedge fund from gaining more board seats. Settlement discussions between the two broke down, Arconic said.
“Hedge funds should not have free reign [sic] to level false or unsubstantiated accusations with the aim of embarrassing, ruining or damaging people,” Arconic’s board wrote in its letter to shareholders.

Elliott won three board seats soon after announcing its stake in Arconic, then Alcoa, in late 2015. It is looking for four more seats on Arconic’s 13-person board.

To replace Kleinfeld and Ratan Tata, who has stepped down, Arconic has nominated former Boeing CEO Jim Albaugh and retired Air Force General Janet Wolfenbarger.

But Elliott maintains that changes to Arconic’s board are not just about adding new people. The hedge fund argues that more fundamental changes are needed.

“This board has excused or been responsible for governance failures ranging from vote-buying, to poison puts, to the determined defense for years of one of the most retrograde governance regimes in corporate America,” Elliott said in an emailed statement.