The boss of General Motors has defeated a challenge from an activist investor to overhaul the carmaker’s board and change its share structure (James Dean writes). Shareholders voted overwhelmingly against the proposals yesterday, marking a victory for Mary Barra, the chief executive.
In March, Greenlight Capital, an activist hedge fund, unveiled proposals that it said would increase the market capitalisation of GM by $38 billion. They involved replacing three members of GM’s board and restructuring its shares into dividend and capital appreciation shares.
Ms Barra opposed the share split, describing it as a “high-risk financial engineering experiment”. She was backed by Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis, the proxy advisers.
More than 91 per cent of votes by shareholders were against the share split.