Icahn Pulls Off More Coups in Manitowoc Company Inc (MTW) Split, Lands Seat on New Company’s Board

In the most recent filing and agreement between Icahn and Manitowoc Company Inc (NYSE:MTW), it’s been revealed that Icahn has managed to score several concessions from the company leading into the split, and then after the split takes place. In addition to landing one of their representatives on the current company’s Board of Directors, they will also have a representative appointed to the new company’s board once the spin-off is completed.

In addition, that new company, which will be the food services side of their current business (currently being referred to as “SpinCo”), will have a de-staggered board, and will have provisions in place to allow for shareholders with 10% stakes to call special shareholder meetings, as well as allowing shareholders to remove and replace directors at a special meeting should anyone obtain majority control of the company.

How a potential sale or takeover of “SpinCo” would be conducted is also covered by the new agreement. In the case of the former, the board must allow a rejected bidder the right to conduct diligence and counter with a better offer than a secondary bidder. In the case of the latter, any poison pill which is not ratified by stockholders within 135 days will expire, and such pills will not have a trigger below 20%.

Icahn Capital praised Manitowoc Company Inc (NYSE:MTW) for setting in place similar corporate governance as what it affected at eBay, saying shareholders would benefit from having control over the company they own, as well as benefit from the presence of Icahn on the board to continue to work to maximize shareholder value.

In addition to Icahn Capital and Relational Investors, other major hedge funds we track at Insider Monkey that have benefited from the announced Manitowoc Company Inc (NYSE:MTW) split include James Dinan’s York Capital Management with 6.50 million shares, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group with 990,950 shares, and Joe Dimenna’s Zweig Dimenna Partners, with 458,343 shares.

Disclosure: None