Agrium CEO Michael Wilson.TODD KOROL/Reuters
For Agrium Inc.'s chief executive officer, the fight against activist shareholder Jana Partners is "an absolute pain in the arse."
On Tuesday, Agrium CEO Michael Wilson reiterated that Jana had "picked the wrong target" when it went after the Calgary-based fertilizer giant.
"To me it's an absolute pain in the arse, and it is a distraction, but that's fine, I can handle that," Mr. Wilson told an audience of investors, analysts and miners in Florida on Tuesday.
"If you look at activism today, it's the way of the world. The real question is how much of a distraction it is," he told the BMO Global Metals and Mining Conference.
Agrium and U.S. Hedge fund Jana Partners have been duelling in the public domain since last summer, when the activist shareholder group, which owns 6.5 per cent of Agrium, launched a campaign to split the fertilizer maker and retailer into two companies.
Jana has also attacked Agrium for its costs, capital allocation and governance record. Agrium has said it is confident that it will prevail.
Shareholders will have a say in the matter in April, when Agrium holds its annual general meeting and they decide whether to vote in a board partial to current management, or a slate of five new directors proposed by Jana.
The remark comes on the heels of a controversial conference call by Encana Corp., during which an unidentified person muttered an obscenity in response to an analyst's question. The energy company attempted to have an audio recording of the call removed from the internet a week later, but only served to breathe new life into the story.
Return to Streetwise home page.