It is reported that Barington Capital Group LP, a hedge fund that has been agitating for a management shakeup at pipe maker Ameron International Corporation, has convinced fellow shareholders to elect the fund's CEO to Ameron's board.
Mr Gary Wagner CFO of Ameron said that his company was not yet ready to release figures, but confirmed that Mr Mitarotonda had been elected to the board and CEO Mr James Marlen had been re elected. Mr Marlen has led Ameron since 1993.
There were two open seats on the board, with independent director David Davenport also up for re election and now apparently out.
Pasadena based Ameron and Barington, which owns 1.3% of shares, have engaged in increasingly bitter proxy battle since Mitarotonda late last year began saying that management was not maximizing shareholder value and it was time for Mr Marlen to step down.
Mr Mitarotonda said that "The preliminary results demonstrate that stockholders overwhelmingly agree with us that there is a need for change at Ameron. I look forward to joining the Ameron board and working constructively with all of the company's incumbent directors to help improve Ameron's operations, profitability and corporate governance."
Mr Mitarotonda would only join the board if he was among the two top vote getters. He was the challenger in the race against Mr Marlen, also chairman of Ameron’s board and Mr David Davenport, an incumbent independent director.
Before the meeting, Ameron had released its fiscal first quarter results, reporting that the company had moved to a loss in its fiscal first quarter as bad weather and fewer high margin sales aggravated a typically slow quarter.
The company reported a net loss of USD 4.33 million in the quarter ended February 28th 2011 as compared with net income of USD 1.08 million a year earlier. Sales were up less than 1% to under USD 110 million. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected per share profit of 50 cents on revenue of USD 116 million.
The company said results were hurt by a 12% increase in the cost of sales due to higher raw material prices, and also by greater percentage of lower margin product sales, which hurt profitability.
Mr Marlen said in the release that the first quarter is traditionally the company’s slowest due to cold weather and holiday schedules, but was worse than usual this year. Wet weather, particularly in Hawaii and the West Coast, delayed some anticipated sales.
(Sourced from www.labusinessjournal.com)
