Nelson Peltz And Procter & Gamble: The Biggest Proxy Battle Ever

Nelson Peltz's Trian Fund Management has declared a proxy war against Procter & Gamble Co PG, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

Peltz, an activist investor and co-founder of Trian, also owns $3.3 billion worth of P&G stock and is looking to gain representation at the board of directors. With a market cap of $222 billion, Peltz's campaign marks the biggest proxy battle in corporate history based on market size, WSJ noted.

After months of discussions, Peltz's requested to join the board of directors was officially rejected. However, the two sides have agreed to take various steps to improve performance, including cutting costs and a management restructuring initiative.

"We need a game-changing attitude at P&G," Peltz told WSJ. "We just can't keep going along the same path," he said.

Nevertheless, the activist investor will now be seeking support from other shareholders and could highlighted the stock's poor performance over the years. Shares of the consumer products behemoth have underperformed the broader S&P 500 index for the past 10 years.

Including dividends, shares of P&G have also netted investors a 4 percent return over the past year. By comparison, the S&P 500 index is up around 16 percent.

Nevertheless, a proxy battle between Peltz and P&G shouldn't come as a surprise. Jim Cramer argued in early June that a CEO change at General Electric Company GE has freed up his attention to focus on P&G.

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Image credit: Wall Street Journal, YouTube