Activist hedge fund firm Trian Fund Management sold a sizable stake in one of its biggest and most successful investments last week and also revealed that one of its partners resigned from the board of directors of another key holding.
The announcements, made in regulatory filings, took place as Trian has moved into the black after posting losses earlier in the year.
In a filing Thursday, Trian said it sold 4.9 million shares of food service giant Sysco. All of the shares were sold between September 5 and 12 for between $74.42 and $75.11 per share. Trian said in the filing that the sales were done “for portfolio management purposes” and in connection with the expiration of a lock-up period. The stock remained Trian’s second-biggest U.S. long position as of the end of the quarter.
The hedge fund firm initially began buying the stock in the second quarter of 2015, taking a 7.1 percent stake in the company. Since the middle of that year, shares of Sysco have roughly doubled.
In August 2015 Trian partners Nelson Peltz and Josh Frank joined Sysco’s board of directors. On July 17 2017, Sysco tapped a new chief executive officer, Tom Bene, who officially joined the company at the beginning of this year.
In a separate filing, Trian said that on September 10, Matthew Peltz, a Trian partner, resigned from the board of directors of Pentair, the water treatment company. He has only been a director since April 2018, serving on the company’s governance and compensation committees. However, from September 2015 through April 2018, Peltz also attended board meetings as an observer.
In 2017 Pentair sold a valves and controls business. Earlier this year it completed its previously announced plan to separate its electrical business, now called nVent Electric, and is now a pure-play residential and commercial water treatment company.
At the end of the second quarter, Trian reported it owned 17.56 million shares of nVent. On August 13, Trian sold 1.7 million shares of Pentair, leaving it with 12.3 million shares, or 7 percent of the total outstanding. Pentair and nVent accounted for two of Trian’s eight U.S. long positions as of the end of June.
In its regulatory filing, Trian said Peltz “played an active role in helping guide” Pentair to split into two companies, adding Trian believes Pentair is “well positioned to succeed.” It also said Peltz resigned from the board “to devote more time to current and future board positions and his commitments to Trian Management.” Trian began buying shares in Pentair in the third quarter of 2015.
The hedge fund’s biggest position is in consumer products giant Procter & Gamble. In December 2017, Nelson Peltz, chief executive officer and a founding partner of Trian, was named to P&G’s board of directors after a heated proxy battle. Last year, Trian issued a white paper laying out its plan for a major reorganization.
Trian’s hedge funds were in the red earlier this year. However, as of the end of August, Trian Partners had gained over 2 percent, according to an investor.
