In order to stave off a proxy fight with activist investor Ed Garden, Fortune Brands Innovations said on Monday that it would reverse its appointment of Amit Banati as chief executive and launch a fresh CEO search, as well as add Garden to its board of directors.
Fortune Brands’ agreement with Garden allows the company to avoid a messy and costly fight with the activist fund. As part of the deal, the Firtune Brands will also ask shareholders to vote on a change to the company’s staggered board structure, which meant only three of 10 directors were up for election this year.
In 2023, Garden stepped down from Trian to launch family office investment vehicle Garden Investments, which would recycle his tried-and-tested activist playbook. Garden had already secured a board seat at kitchen equipment company Middleby after building a 5 per cent stake as well as successfully pushing it to spin off its food processing unit and divest control of its kitchen products unit behind the Aga stove. Garden was not prioritising a break-up at Fortune Brands and instead believed the company could ride a wave of consolidation sweeping across the building products sector to growth, the people said.
Potential break up at Fortune Brands. Garden's company is now in control and can potentially control the stock price and make his company millions maybe even billions. Makes you wonder if Fink tanked the company on purpose with the help of McKinsey. It's never what you know. It's what you can prove....