Activist investor Jana Partners LLC, who has pushed changes at Agrium, has said that proxy adviser Institutional Shareholder Services Inc has recommended a shareholder vote for two of the nominees it has forwarded to the board. The two nominees are Jana Managing Partner Barry Rosenstein and former CFO at Graham Packaging David Bullock.
Jana has been seeking to replace five of the board members at Agrium with its own nominees. The reason for such change is the lack of experience in the products that the company supports, such as farm product retail and distribution in the current composition of board members. It has also earlier recommended that Agrium spin off its retail network in order to bolster profit margins. Currently, Jana is Agrium's largest individual shareholder, holding a 7.5% stake according to statistics compiled by Bloomberg.
ISS backed Jana is butting heads with other proxy advisers headed by Glass Lewis coming into these issues.
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