Activist investor Carl Icahn has acquired a 7.77-percent ownership stake in Manitowoc and plans to influence the crane and food-services equipment manufacturer to break up into two separate companies, according to an SEC filing.
Icahn is not the first activist investor to push for a separation of the crane and food services businesses. Relational Investors LLC acquired an 8.5-percent stake in the company in June and began demanding the selling off of the food services unit.
Icahn, who played a major role in the ouster of Hertz chairman and CEO Mark Frissora in September because of accounting issues, has said he plans to seek discussions with company management and the board and will seek board representation if he considers it “appropriate.”
Manitowoc’s leadership has been cool to the idea of a breakup, having acquired the food-services branch of the company to offset the cyclical nature of the crane industry.
Wall Street sources have said Icahn would find it challenging to gain support of a majority of board members because directors’ terms are staggered so that only a few directors stand for election annually. Manitowoc also has an anti-takeover “poison pill” in place to block individual investors from gaining more than 20 percent of the company’s stock. However, Icahn could attempt to unite with other large investors to force a change.
Manitowoc’s crane business has been hampered by weak demand. The crane business accounted for nearly 62 percent of Manitowoc’s total revenue of about $4 billion in 2013.
Within days of the announcement, Manitowoc announced that Eric Etchart, who had been president of the Manitowoc Cranes unit for nearly eight years, will become the company’s senior vice president of business development.
Etchart will be replaced by Larry Weyers, most recently global executive vice president for Manitowoc Cranes.
Manitowoc also said Mark Beffel, vice president of operational excellence, will retire effective Feb. 2. Josef Matosevic will become senior vice president of global operational excellence. Matosevic is currently executive vice president of manufacturing, cranes.
