Shareholders of Canadian fertilizer and ag retail company Agrium have elected all 12 board candidates from the company and none from activist shareholder Jana Partners, Agrium said on Tuesday.
The Calgary-based company has been locked in a proxy battle with Jana since November.
The New York hedge fund owns about seven per cent of Agrium and has called for a possible breakup of Agrium’s fertilizer and retail arms, and also for reduced costs and better use of capital.
Agrium’s chairman, Victor Zaleschuk, said in a release Tuesday that about 80 per cent of the company’s top 50 “actively-managed institutional shareholders” voted for Agrium’s nominees.
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Among Jana’s nominees were the hedge fund’s managing partner Barry Rosenstein; Canada’s former federal agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief; and David Bullock, a former executive with ag retailer UAP, now owned by Agrium.
Jana alleged earlier Tuesday that the vote was tainted and votes cast for some of its five candidates were revoked after Friday’s deadline.
Rosenstein said at Agrium’s annual general meeting in Calgary that the hedge fund had had enough votes as of Friday’s deadline to elect one or more of its candidates.
“We have learned, however, that yesterday, three days after the vote deadline, votes for us were revoked, enough apparently to change the outcome of the vote,” he said.
Agrium, however, said the result was “fair and square.”
Based on “preliminary information,” Agrium said in a release Tuesday, about 116 million shares were voted, representing about 77 per cent of eligible shares.
Excluding Jana’s shares, on average, Jana’s nominees received less than 25 per cent of the votes cast, Agrium said. — Reuters/Staff
