Disney winning proxy battle with Trian with more than half of votes cast – WSJ

Walt Disney Co. (NYSE:DIS) is prevailing over activist Trian in its proxy struggle for board seats, with greater than half of the votes forged, in accordance with a WSJ report on Monday.

BlackRock, Disney’s second-largest shareholder with a 4.2% stake, is among the many buyers backing the leisure large, in accordance with the WSJ report, which cited individuals accustomed to the matter.

Cash supervisor T. Rowe Value additionally mentioned on Monday it plans to vote for Disney. It owns about 9.3 million Disney shares, or about 0.5% of the overall.

“T. Rowe Value is comfy that administration has a viable plan to deal with the essential issues dealing with the corporate,” the cash supervisor mentioned in a press release, in accordance with a Bloomberg report.

The information comes as Disney (DIS) holders are set to vote on the proxy feud between Trian’s Nelson Peltz and Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger on the annual assembly on Wednesday. It is not assured that Disney (DIS) will stay forward within the voting as buyers are nonetheless casting votes and might change them by the annual assembly, the WSJ mentioned.

Trian’s marketing campaign, formally launched in early 2024, has drawn assist from key stakeholders, together with influential proxy advisory agency Institutional Shareholder Providers, which has backed Nelson Peltz’s candidacy however not Jay Rasulo, a former CFO of Disney. Proxy agency Glass Lewis has backed Disney’s director slate.

Activist investor Blackwells Capital additionally nominated three administrators for Disney’s board.

Reuters reported on Friday that the California Public Workers Retirement System (CalPERS) mentioned it voted to elect Trian’s director nominees. CalPERS, the largest public pension plan within the U.S., owned 6.65M Disney (DIS) shares as of the top of 2023.