Manitowoc Company Inc (MTW) to Split After Activist Pressure from Icahn, Relational

Relational has been no slouch in their own activist endeavors. In addition to their current success with Manitowoc Company Inc (NYSE:MTW), Whitworth was deemed instrumental in helping Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) right itself while a member of that company’s board, following a series of scandals and mismanagement; he was nominated in November of 2011, and became interim chair of the board in April, 2013. HP remains the largest holding in Relational’s equity portfolio, and is up over 30% since Whitworth was appointed to the board.

Whitworth is also famed for orchestrating a major shakeup at Home Depot Inc. (NYSE:HD) in 2007 while an activist investor in that company, which resulted in the CEO and four of the board’s directors being ousted. He also helped improve Home Depot’s business model by lobbying for a retreat from the commercial-building supply side of their business. Home Depot is up nearly 300% since the beginning of 2008. Whitworth has also served on the board’s of 11 other publicly-traded companies, including Mattel, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAT) and Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:SIRI).

It’s also worth nothing that while Manitowoc Company Inc (NYSE:MTW) has had a disastrous run of late, tumbling over 40% since July on weakness in its crane division, investing in spinoffs has historically been a profitable endeavor, as the new businesses are typically stronger and more focused on their own, while becoming more attractive pure play investment options to investors.

Other major hedge funds we track here at Insider Monkey that stand to benefit from Manitowoc Company Inc (NYSE:MTW)’s 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