Why Is No Settlement Is In Sight Between DuPont And Trian Partners? Nelson Peltz Explains

With only two days left for the proxy vote between E I Du Pont De Nemours And Co DD and Trian Partners, Nelson Peltz, founder and CEO of Trian Partners, was on CNBC Monday to discuss why no settlement has been reached between the parties yet and the prospect of that are also dim.

No Hope

“I think the prospects for a last-minute settlement are very dim,” Peltz said. “The last call we had -- I can’t tell you don't hold me to it six weeks ago -- when at the instigation of several shareholders, I picked up the phone to try and make a compromise with Ellen (Kullman, CEO of DuPont) and she was very pleasant on the phone.”

“And she said I have got to get Sandy (Cutler, DuPont lead director) on the phone. I said, ‘Ellen, rather than calling Sandy, why don’t you call your [Board] together?’ in hopes that we talk later on today because she was at a jam at the moment.”

The Conversation With Alexander Cutler

Peltz continued, “So, she called me back end of day and it was Sandy on the call and Sandy did virtually a 100 percent of the talking and I said, ‘Let’s try and work something out here’ and Sandy said, ‘Well we made a compromise, we offered you one seat for one of the Trian nominees. I said, ‘That was offered months before, Sandy, that’s not a compromise.”

“We're talking about a bit further than that and my suggestion is you take a Trian principal and a Trian nominee and put us on the board and then you take the other two and put them on the Board of Chemours which at the time and I still think is a Board information."

“So, there are only two members on the Board at that point of time, two of the longest serving directors at DuPont were put on that Board and there were 10 empty places. I said why don’t you take two of those guys and put them on that Board and get rid of this staggered Board at Chemours…and…the answer was no,” Peltz said.