TASTE FOR BEEF
At 64, Nelson Peltz is reinventing himself as a slimmed-down buyout star as he goes after his second billion-dollar fortune – Wendy’s.
Peltz and his long-time partner, Peter May, also 64, are shedding the corporate vehicle they’ve ridden to the top of the fast food hill to acquire giant Arby’s, but are trading it in for new personal riches and new targets.
At the same time, they’re also turning up the heat for a takeover of Wendy’s, despite opposition from Wendy’s beleaguered Chairman James Pickett.
It’s not unusual for Peltz, originally a buyout titan, to go after companies and make killings, such as with Snapple. His separate hedge fund, which operates from the offices of Arby’s parent Triarc, already controls 9.8 percent of Wendy’s.
Peltz has been pressuring Wendy’s to fire up its stock price since he first bought shares two years ago, and also has put three associates onto its board in a proxy maneuver.
What’s adding a new twist is that Peltz and his investment-banker partner of 26 years formally quit their jobs yesterday as the top two officers of Triarc.
Triarc also will move the Manhattan offices of its restaurant business to Arby’s headquarters in Atlanta for “significant annual savings,” the company said in filings.
As part of the restructuring of Triarc, employment agreements of the two founders were terminated, triggering golden-parachute severance pacts that include a $71 million lump sum for Peltz and $37.6 million for May, according to filings.
That’s on top of a $53.5 million gain Peltz got last year from cashing in Triarc stock options and a $37.2 million options windfall for May.
Peltz and May will of course keep working, but as equity fund managers standing on their own, managing at least $75 million of Triarc’s cash along with other assets.
Peltz, his son-in-law, Ed Garden, 45, and May have run a series of equity funds since 2005 under Triarc’s corporate umbrella, paying for rent and other costs. The funds will now be run independently, collecting their own fees.
Peltz and May will remain directors as chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the Arby’s parent, in which they together control about 34 percent of the voting power.
