New York hedge fund Sandell Asset Management is working with outside PR and proxy firms as it targets the board of eatery chain Bob Evans Farms. BEF owns 562 restaurants in 19 US states and markets refrigerated foods, as well, chalking up $1.6B in fiscal 2013 revenues. The company in June delayed release of its fourth-quarter earnings by three weeks, citing tax and accounting issues. It named a new chief financial officer last week.
Sandell is working with Sloane & Company on the PR front and MacKenzie Partners to woo proxies. The hedge fund has pushed Bob Evans to expand its board and is offering a slate of eight candidates for the 12-member body ahead of its annual meeting later this month.
BEF, which works with Kekst and Company and Innisfree M&A for PR and proxy help, is offering its own slate of 10 directors and says it made several good faith attempts to work with Sandell and meet its nominees to avoid a proxy contest. The company added that Sandell "has spurned all of these efforts."
"We are disappointed that Mr. Sandell has not joined us in a constructive approach, but I want to assure all of our stockholders that the board remains open to pursuing a solution that will avoid a costly and divisive proxy contest," chairman and CEO Steve Davis said.
Sandell counters that BEF is obfuscating. "In our view, Bob Evans is doing nothing more than trying to appear as if they are willing compromise," Sandell chief Tom Sandell said, adding that his firm is willig to work with BEF on its "significant problems." He called BEF's offer of two board seats a "token" and "meaningless effort designed to be rejected."
Sloane CEO Elliot Sloane and SVP Dan Zacchei represent Sandell.
Bob Evans VP of IR Scott Taggart said the company has a longstanding relationship with Kekst and Innisfree. Margaret Standing is director of corporate communications.
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.
Kekst CNC represents Grant Thornton as it sells a majority stake in its US arm to New Mountain Capital, which relies on Goldin Solutions, in what is billed as the largest PE investment in the accounting and advisory sector.
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