PARIS (Reuters) – U.S. investment firm Artisan Partners, which is pressuring France’s Danone to shake its rule amid criticism over weak results, will meet with several of its board members next week, a source said. close to business Sunday.
The source was speaking after French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche reported that Artisan Partners would meet as early as Tuesday afternoon with chief independent member Danone Gilles Schnepp, the board’s chief independent director Michel Landel and possibly some other Danone board members.
Danone, the world’s largest yogurt group, which reports its 2020 earnings on Friday February 19, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Earlier this week Artisan Partners, which said it had raised an interest of more than 3% in Danone, made it the third largest shareholder, criticizing the company’s strategy and shared price performance in a letter he made public, asking Danone for the positions of chief executive and chairman.
The move follows similar requests from venture investor Bluebell, whose support was only revealed last month, calling for Danone Chairman and CEO Emmanuel Faber to resign.
Shares in Danone, which has lower income and cash margins than competitors such as Nestle, lost nearly 30% last year. Emmanuel Faber has been Danone’s chief executive since 2014 and also took over as chairman three years later.
Reciting with Dominique Vidalon; edited by Emelia Sithole-Matarise