Publicly traded convenience store chain The Pantry has enlisted Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher as it fends off a dissident proxy challenge ahead of its March 13 annual meeting.
A group including JCP Investment Management in Houston and Lone Star Value Management of Old Greenwich, Conn., is pushing an alternative slate of three board candidates in a bid to improve governance and performance at Cary, N.C.-based The Pantry.
Connecticut-based InvestorCom is handling the outreach campaign for the group, which dubs itself Concerned Pantry Shareholders and frets about a sluggish stock price, debt levels, and the current Pantry board's "minimal" ownership of less than 1% of the company. The group's slate picked up the endorsement of three proxy advisory firms, Glass Lewis & Co., Institutional Shareholder Services, and Egan-Jones.
The Pantry, which says its board and management are following a strategic plan to improve the business and shareholder value, said it is "disappointed" in the Glass Lewis report and challenged its accuracy. It also blasted the shareholder group for a "similar disregard for the facts and carelessness" in touting the flawed report.
The Pantry runs 1,567 stores in 13 states under the Kangaroo Express name.
Innisfree M&A Incorporated is helping The Pantry promote its slate of board candidates to shareholders.
Joele Frank president Matthew Sherman and partner Andrew Siegel are advising The Pantry, which posted a fiscal first quarter net loss of $5.1M on revenue of $1.8B in the fourth quarter.
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Teneo is handling the initial public offering of CVC Capital Partners, one of Europe’s largest private equity firms with nearly $200B in assets under management.
Brunswick Group represents Endeavor Group Holdings as it agrees to go private via its acquisition by Silver Lake technology investment firm, which is handled by Edelman Smithfield.
Tod Donhauser, a nine-year veteran of Edelman, has joined H/Advisors Abernathy as managing director and head of its San Francisco office.
Intelligent Group Ltd, a Hong Kong-based financial PR firm, has priced its initial public offering of 1.9M shares at $4, which is the low end of the $4 to $5 range.
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