Bill Ackman Cuts Mondelez Stake, Carl Icahn Trims Position in This Software Maker, Plus 2 Other Moves

As revealed by another 13D filing, Ashe Capital Management, launched by William Crowley, William Harker, and Stephen Blass, currently owns 10.03 million shares of Allison Transmission Holdings Inc. (NYSE:ALSN), which make up 5.9% of the company’s outstanding shares. This represents an increase from the stake of 9.42 million shares disclosed in the fund’s 13F for the December quarter. The filing also reveals that Ashe Capital withdrew its director nomination and governance proposals for consideration at the company’s annual meeting of stockholders, after Allison Transmission Holdings Inc. (NYSE:ALSN) announced that the Board added “two new qualified independent directors and, most importantly, determined to nominate another stockholder to the Board” and also adopted three corporate governance enhancements proposed by Ashe Capital. Those governance proposals included the declassification of the Board, which means that the entire Board will be elected annually beginning at the 2017 meeting of stockholders; the adoption of a majority voting standard for the election of directors in uncontested elections; and making proxy access available to the company’s shareholders starting with the 2017 meeting of stockholders.

The designer and manufacturer of commercial and defense fully-automatic transmissions has seen its shares decline by 18% over the past year, though they are trading in positive territory thus far in 2016. The smart money sentiment towards Allison Transmission declined in the fourth quarter, as the number of funds with stakes in the company dropped to 27 from 40 quarter-over-quarter. Jeffrey Ubben’s ValueAct Capital owns 19.13 million shares of Allison Transmission Holdings Inc. (NYSE:ALSN) as of the end of the December quarter.

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