(Reuters) - Activist investor Oasis Management stepped up its campaign against Premier Foods’ (PFD.L) management on Friday, questioning the board’s culture after its chairman Keith Hamill called some of its British brands “weak cards”.
Premier Foods has been under pressure to improve its performance since rejecting a 2016 takeover bid from U.S. food-maker McCormick (MKC.N) and Hong Kong-based Oasis is battling to remove Chief Executive Gavin Darby.
Oasis, Premier’s second-largest shareholder, has engineered a showdown at the firm’s annual general meeting next month by calling for shareholders to vote against Darby’s re-election.
Founded in 2002 by Seth Fischer, who leads the firm as its chief investment officer, Oasis said it was “extraordinary and unprecedented” that Hamill, in comments reported this week by the Financial Times, described some of its brands, which include Mr Kipling cakes and Angel Delight, as “weak cards”.
Oasis also criticized Hamill’s defense of the board’s strategy and executive pay.
Premier Foods is one of several European companies which have been targeted by activist investors, including Akzo Nobel, Telecom Italia and Whitbread.
“Oasis considers the brands within Premier Foods to be exceedingly high quality and very valuable. Rather more ‘gems’ than ‘weak cards’, but gems that seem to be being mis-managed,” it said in a statement, adding that sales of Batchelors Soup, for example, were growing at 11 percent a year.
A Premier spokesman said that the board remained unanimous that Darby was the best person to implement its agreed strategy, which he said “is clearly working”.
The spokesman said he believed Nissin (9066.T), Premier Food’s biggest shareholder, backed Darby
