The heat that the Campbell Soup board is feeling is coming from the activist investor Dan Loeb after losing his battle to get them to sell the company.
Loeb’s Third Point fund is readying a full slate of nominees to overhaul the Camden, NJ-based soup maker’s 12-member board — which on Thursday spurned his demand that they put the company up for sale, The Post has learned.
At least three of Loeb’s nominees are former Campbell board members, two sources told The Post. One is likely to be Douglas Conant, 67, who served as Campbell’s chief executive for more than a decade until he stepped down in July 2011, one of the sources said.
Conant was credited with rehabbing Campbell after the stock had fallen by half before he took the reins in 2001.
Still, a win will likely be difficult for Loeb, as roughly 40 percent of the company’s shares are held by descendants of the Campbell family.
The attack from Loeb’s fund is coming after Campbell on Thursday defied his demand that the company be sold.
Instead, it said it will divest non-core businesses such as Bolthouse Farms refrigerated foods and overseas brands such as Arnott’s.
In a regulatory filing earlier this month, Third Point disclosed a 5.7 percent Campbell stake, warning that it may seek to upend Campbell’s board if it “conclude[s] that [Campbell’s] board failed to discharge its fiduciary duty.”
Loeb, who has joined forces with Campbell family descendant George Strawbridge, said last month Campbell’s only “justifiable outcome” of its review was a full sale.
Although Thursday’s plan sidestepped that suggestion, interim CEO Keith McLoughlin said Campbell is “open and committed” to considering other options to boost the company’s shares.
It may not be the best time for a packaged-foods company to put itself on the block. As reported by The Post, Kraft Heinz has held preliminary talks with Campbell. But on Thursday, Kraft Heinz shareholder Warren Buffett threw cold water on the prospect.
“I think it’s very hard to offer a significant premium for a packaged-goods company and have it make financial sense,” Buffett told CNBC. “It is a tougher business than it was 10 years ago.”
Campbell’s shares are off 17.3 percent year-to-date, and it closed down 2.1 percent, at $39.15 on Thursday.
