Cliffs drops more slate nominees in attempt to retain board control
TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – US iron-ore and metallurgical coal producer Cliffs Natural Resources on Friday said it had reduced its slate of board nominees to be elected at the July 29 annual meeting from nine to seven candidates, which, in its view, would allow shareholders to vote for four nominees of activist shareholder Casablanca Capital, while its slate retained control of the board.
On Wednesday, two independent proxy advisory firms gave New York-based Casablanca their backing, recommending that Cliffs shareholders vote in favour of four of the activist shareholder’s slate of director nominees. Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis & Co issued strong recommendations in support of Casablanca’s campaign, saying that the dissident had made a compelling case for change to the board.
However, Cliffs maintained that the two proxy advisers recommended that Cliffs’ nominees should remain as the majority of Cliffs’ board.
Cliffs said its board had decided that Barry Eldridge and Stephen Johnson would no longer stand for re-election.
Cliffs also offered to include metals and mining veteran Lourenco Goncalves, Joseph Rutkowski, Gabriel Stoliar and Douglas Taylor on Cliffs’ proxy card, if they agreed to it.
The Cleveland, Ohio-based firm pointed out that owing to its cumulative voting provision, should shareholders support the Casablanca proxy card, it believed that Casablanca would be able to elect a majority board.
Casablanca hit back in a statement, saying: “This is a desperate last-minute ploy by a self-interested board that will stop at nothing to keep its seats, maintain the status quo and prevent real change in our view.”
Casablanca launched a proxy battle in January, with the aim of replacing the incumbent board with six of its own nominees, and accused the current board of shareholder value destruction.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation