News Updates 4 U: foul

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

WRAPUP 1-Agrium sweeps proxy vote, Jana cries foul

Tue Apr 9, 2013 3:29pm EDT

* Agrium says all of its board candidates win election

* Jana says votes for its candidates revoked after deadline

* Shares fall around 3 percent (Adds background, share activity and Agrium comment)

By Scott Haggett

CALGARY, Alberta, April 9 (Reuters) – Canadian fertilizer company Agrium Inc said on Tuesday its entire slate of directors had been elected to its board, defeating a rival slate nominated by dissident U.S. shareholder Jana Partners.

Jana, the hedge fund that is Agrium’s biggest single shareholder, said the vote was tainted and should be investigated. Agrium said the result was “fair and square”.

Shares of Agrium, the world’s third largest nitrogen producer and the largest farm retailer in the United States, fell around 3 percent in New York and Toronto.

Jana said votes cast for some of its five candidates for the 12-member board were revoked after Friday’s deadline.

The shutout of its candidates does serious damage to Jana’s case for breaking up Agrium, which is a wholesale producer of potash, nitrogen and phosphate fertilizer, as well as being a farm-products retailer.

Jana’s managing partner, Barry Rosenstein, said the hedge fund had had enough votes as of Friday’s deadline to elect one or more of its candidates, and that the vote was “tainted”.

“We have learned, however, that yesterday, three days after the vote deadline, votes for us were revoked, enough apparently to change the outcome of the vote,” he said at Agrium’s annual meeting in Calgary, Alberta.

An Agrium spokesman said, “the loss was pure and simple, fair and square”.

Jana, which owns 7.5 percent of Agrium, favors a breakup of the company and wants Agrium to cut costs in its retail division, return cash to shareholders and improve disclosure. Agrium says keeping its wholesale fertilizer production and retail business under one roof adds value.

Both sides frequently accused each other of dirty tricks during the proxy battle.

Agrium shares were down 2.8 percent in New York at $ 94.92 and down 3.2 percent at C$ 96.20 in Toronto.

($ 1=$ 1.02 Canadian) (Writing and additional reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba and Euan Rocha in Toronto; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick; and Peter Galloway)

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Reuters: Financial Services and Real Estate

WRAPUP 1-Agrium sweeps proxy vote, Jana cries foul

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

American death in Singapore raises questions about espionage, foul play

Was it suicide or was it murder? And is a major Chinese company trying to use restricted U.S. technology for a military purpose?

In a case with possible national security implications for the U.S., an American electronics engineer was found hanged in Singapore last year. Local police suggested Shane Todd’s death was suicide. He was troubled and was just leaving his job, but the family isn’t buying it.

A story in the Financial Times is raising troubling questions about the circumstances of the death and work Todd was doing for IME, a Singapore government research institute. The work reportedly involved gallium nitride, a semiconductor that can withstand high levels of heat and power with both civilian and military applications. There are also possible connections to Huawei, the big Chinese phone company that American lawmakers worry could be involved in espionage.

“What we know from a file on Mr. Todd’s computer was that he has a project labeled ‘Huawei’ and there was a project plan where IME and Huawei would be working on a project from 2012 to the end of 2014,” explains Christine Spolar, investigations editor for the Financial Times, who says that Todd’s family suspects foul play related to this work.

According to the family, Todd told them he feared he was working on a project that was hurting U.S. national security.

In response to the FT’s piece, Singapore authorities say they are still investigating Shane Todd’s death, with a coroner’s inquest set next month.