Tenet Wins Investor Glenview’s Support for Board Nominations (Reuters)
(Reuters) – Tenet Healthcare Corporation (THC.N) said on Monday it reached an agreement with its largest shareholder Glenview Capital Management to vote in favor of the hospital operator’s board nominees. Hedge fund Glenview has nearly 18 percent stake and has withdrawn its proposal made in February to amend Tenet’s bylaws that would allow shareholders to take action by written consent without a meeting, the company said. Last year, Glenview pulled off its two representatives from the board, citing “irreconcilable differences” over strategy.
Elliott Says Could Buy Travelport, Buys 12 percent Stake (Reuters)
(Reuters) – Activist hedge fund Elliott Management Corp on Monday asked Travelport Worldwide Ltd (TVPT.N) to pursue a sale and said it could be a potential buyer as it disclosed a nearly 12 percent stake in the travel software company. The move is the latest example of how Elliott uses its private equity arm, Evergreen Coast Capital Partners, to pressure companies to explore a sale. Elliott successfully used the strategy on LifeLock, which was later sold to Symantec Corp (SYMC.O). Elliott will encourage Travelport to launch the sale process and seek to participate, the fund said on Monday in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
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Pershing Square Picks Heavyweight Non-Executive Directors (FNLondon.com)
Pershing Square Holdings, the listed hedge fund led by activist investor Bill Ackman, is to recommend shareholders appoint two financial heavyweights to its board, as it struggles with prolonged underperformance. In a statement, the fund said it would propose Bronwyn Curtis and Richard Wohanka for nomination at the company annual general meeting in Guernsey next month. Curtis held senior positions at HSBC from 2008 to 2012, where she managed its global research operations and portfolio, including economic, fixed income, foreign exchange and equity products.
Remington: US Gunmaker Files for Bankruptcy Amid ‘Trump Slump’ (The Guardian)
Remington Outdoor, one of the US’s biggest gunmakers, has filed for bankruptcy protection as it struggles against a mountain of debts and falling sales. The 202-year-old company, which made the Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle used in the Sandy Hook shooting in Connecticut that left 20 first-graders and six teachers dead, filed for chapter 11 protection in Delaware bankruptcy court on Sunday. The official filing came during a weekend of March For Our Lives protests across the US of children calling for greater gun control laws after 17 deaths in a school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Remington, which is owned by the Cerberus Capital Management hedge fund, said it had debts of between $100m-$500m (£70m-£352m) and estimated that its assets were worth about the same amount. The company plans to reduce its debts by transferring control of the firm to its creditors.
Alden Global Capital’s Business Model Destroys Newspapers for Little Gain (Bloomberg)
In 2007, Smith started Alden Global Capital LLC, installing Freeman as president. The firm and its president have since become notorious as a destroyer of newspapers. In 2010, Alden Global acquired out of bankruptcy MediaNews Group Inc., the newspaper empire William Dean Singleton had built, which included such prominent regional papers as the Denver Post, the Salt Lake City Tribune and the St. Paul Pioneer Press. According to its website, the company, now named Digital First Media, has grown to 97 newspapers. It is no secret that the newspaper business is in decline. So it’s hardly surprising that Freeman would feel the need to shrink the head count at his newspapers, just as almost every other newspaper owner has had to do for years.
