By Tess Stynes
A third proxy adviser offered support to Nelson Peltz's campaign
to get on the board of DuPont Co. but was the first to endorse his
entire slate of nominees.
Egan-Jones recommended the election of Mr. Peltz, chief
executive of activist investor Trian Fund Management LP, and his
three nominees to DuPont's 12-member board--John H. Myers, Arthur
B. Winkleblack and Robert J. Zatta.
In a statement Monday, DuPont said that the chemical company's
shareholders support DuPont's strategy and that it is "confident
they will make decisions based on their own independent, fact based
assessments. Egan Jones's three-paragraph analysis is based upon
suppositions and hypotheses, completely unsupported by the
facts."
Glass Lewis & Co. late Wednesday said shareholders should
elect Mr. Peltz to DuPont's board at its annual meeting this month,
citing the company's earnings disappointments in recent years and
its slowing revenue growth.
However, saying that the election of multiple dissident nominees
is "unwarranted," Glass Lewis didn't go as far as Institutional
Investor Services Inc., which earlier backed Messrs. Peltz and
Myers.
DuPont previously has said its stock performance has beaten the
broader market, that its board is already taking significant steps
to change, and that Mr. Peltz, if elected, would be focused on a
breakup that DuPont thinks is a bad idea.
--David Benoit contributed to this article.
Write to Tess Stynes at tess.stynes@wsj.com
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