DHT Maritime Inc. is the operating company that owns and leases out a fleet of oil tankers -- the name letters "DHT" originally stood for "double hull tankers," but since at least 2005 they haven't properly stood for anything -- the letters are simply the name.
Anyway, on March 1 of this year, DHT Maritime completed transactions that made it a subsidiary of a holding company, appropriately called DHT Holdings, organized in the Marshall Islands.
Still more recently, DHT Holdings has been engaged in a proxy dispute with MMI Investments, a New York based hedge fund we've encountered before in this blog. It's DHT's largest shareholder, currently owning 9.7% of DHT Holdings' equity.
On Friday, May 14, MMI and DHT have reached an agreement. Here's the filing. The gist of it is that DHT Holdings will expand the size of its board of directors to include MMI's nominee, Robert Cowen.
One of the issues involved in the proxy fight was the question of paying dividends and/or starting a share buyback. Previously, DHT's chairman has said that the company "will certainly consider reinstating the dividend" or starting a share-buyback in the future, but conditions in its industry do not allow for that just now. There's nothing explicit on the dividend/buy-back issues in the peace treaty.
Showing posts with label MMI Investments. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MMI Investments. Show all posts
Monday, May 17, 2010
Monday, May 18, 2009
Glass Lewis supports Chemed nominees
One of the leading proxy advisory firms, Glass Lewis, says this morning it thinks Chemed shareholders should vote in favor of the comnpany's nominees for the board of directors at the annual meeting, scheduled for May 29.
Chemed, an Ohio-based company, is best known for its Roto-Rooter subsidiary, North America's largest provider of plumbing and drain cleaning services. But its main line of business is the Vitas Healthcare Corporation, which runs hospices in 12 states.
That seems an odd and arbitrary combination of businesses. These days the old-fashioned "conglomerate," where businesses with no connection to one another sheltered under a single corporate roof, is in disfavor. The general presumption is that there should be symmetry between or among the parts of the whole. After all, if I as an investor want to diversify my portfolio, I can do so myself. Why should the dversification be accomplished by the corporation rather than by the stockholder?
Anyway, that appears to be the reasoning of the dissidents, led by MMI Investments LP, a New York based hedge fund. They've urged shareholders to elect a new board of directors who would pursue a spin-off of one or the other of these two disparate lines.
Glass Lewis, though, says: "We see no reason to doubt the board's assertion that a separation of the company's ... businesses, while strategically compelling, is not advisable at this time due to market conditions. Furthermore, we have found that the Company's stock price has continued to outperform relevabnt indices in recent years."
On the stock price: Chemed stock trades on the NYSE under the ticker symbol CHE. Its price rose by approximately 7.4% during the two years beginning February 11, 2007. During those same two years, the S&P Small Cap 600 Health Services index declined by 28.1%, and the S&P 500 Index declined by 42%.
Chemed, an Ohio-based company, is best known for its Roto-Rooter subsidiary, North America's largest provider of plumbing and drain cleaning services. But its main line of business is the Vitas Healthcare Corporation, which runs hospices in 12 states.
That seems an odd and arbitrary combination of businesses. These days the old-fashioned "conglomerate," where businesses with no connection to one another sheltered under a single corporate roof, is in disfavor. The general presumption is that there should be symmetry between or among the parts of the whole. After all, if I as an investor want to diversify my portfolio, I can do so myself. Why should the dversification be accomplished by the corporation rather than by the stockholder?
Anyway, that appears to be the reasoning of the dissidents, led by MMI Investments LP, a New York based hedge fund. They've urged shareholders to elect a new board of directors who would pursue a spin-off of one or the other of these two disparate lines.
Glass Lewis, though, says: "We see no reason to doubt the board's assertion that a separation of the company's ... businesses, while strategically compelling, is not advisable at this time due to market conditions. Furthermore, we have found that the Company's stock price has continued to outperform relevabnt indices in recent years."
On the stock price: Chemed stock trades on the NYSE under the ticker symbol CHE. Its price rose by approximately 7.4% during the two years beginning February 11, 2007. During those same two years, the S&P Small Cap 600 Health Services index declined by 28.1%, and the S&P 500 Index declined by 42%.
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