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Trian Fund Management, L.P., which uses the trade name Trian Partners, is an American
hedge fund A hedge fund is a Pooling (resource management), pooled investment fund that holds Market liquidity, liquid assets and that makes use of complex trader (finance), trading and risk management techniques to aim to improve investment performance and ...
management firm headquartered in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. As an
activist investor Shareholder activism is a form of activism in which shareholders use Equity (finance), equity stakes in a corporation to put pressure on its management. A fairly small stake (less than 10% of outstanding shares) may be enough to launch a successfu ...
, the firm has pushed for significant change at some of America's largest corporations.


History

Trian was founded in 2005 by
Nelson Peltz Nelson Peltz (born June 24, 1942) is an American billionaire businessman and investor. He is a founding partner, together with Peter W. May and Edward P. Garden, of Trian Partners, an alternative investment management fund based in New York. He i ...
, Peter W. May, and Ed Garden. In June 2023, Garden, who was the firm's chief investment officer, stepped down from the role although he remained a senior advisor at Trian. It came as a surprise to some as he was the youngest of the three co-founders and was expected to stick around potentially leading the business. Trian focuses on the consumer, industrial, and financial sectors. The firm has developed a reputation as an activist investor and has often obtained
board of directors A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...
seats at companies to make changes to them.


Notable deals

In 2007, Trian bought a 3% share of Cadbury-Schweppes. Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages was later spun off from the Cadbury Schweppes confectionery group. In the same year, Trian also bought $1.8 billion in shares of
Kraft Foods Kraft Foods Group, Inc. was an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate (company), conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. on October 1, 2012, and was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz on July ...
. In February 2011, Trian offered to buy
Family Dollar Family Dollar Stores, Inc. is an American variety store chain founded in 1959 by Leon Levine in Charlotte, North Carolina. With over 8,000 locations in all states except Alaska and Hawaii, it was once the second largest retailer of its type in th ...
for $55–60 per share which was rejected. Family Dollar also used the poison pill tactic in its defense. In September 2011, Garden joined the Family Dollar board. In October 2011, Trian, which owned 3.3% of
State Street Corporation State Street Corporation is an American global financial services and bank holding company headquartered at One Congress Street in Boston with operations worldwide. The company is named after State Street in Boston, which was known as the "Gr ...
, called for it to focus more on profitability and to consider selling or spinning-off its investment management arm,
State Street Global Advisors State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) is an American investment management division of State Street Corporation founded in 1978 and the world's fourth largest asset manager, with nearly in assets under management as of December 31, 2023. SSGA ...
. Although State Street kept its investment management arm, it engaged in other cost-cutting measures. By the time Trian sold its stake in State Street in 2013, the share price of had doubled. In May 2012, Trian announced that in partnership with
CalSTRS The California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS) provides retirement, disability, and survivor benefits for California's 965,000 prekindergarten through community college educators and their families. CalSTRS was established by law in ...
, it had a 7% stake in
Ingersoll Rand Ingersoll Rand Inc. is an American multinational company that provides flow creation and industrial products. The company was formed in February 2020 through the spinoff of the industrial segment of Ingersoll-Randplc (now known as Trane Technol ...
. In August, Peltz joined its board. Trian and Peltz spearheaded a move to break up the company to improve profitability. Ingersoll Rand eventually agreed to spin off its securities business as Allegion, which was completed in December 2013. In February 2014, as a beneficial owner of approximately $1.2 billion of
PepsiCo PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase, New York, Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the f ...
shares, Trian publicly released a letter to PepsiCo's board of directors and a white paper detailing why it should spin out its beverage business from its snacks division. Previously it had urged PepsiCo to acquire
Mondelez International Mondelēz International, Inc. ( ) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational confectionery, food industry, food, Holding company, holding, drink industry, beverage and snack food company based in Chicago. Mondelez has an annual rev ...
, but dropped the idea after winning a seat on Mondelēz's board. Though PepsiCo rejected the breakup proposal, it settled with Trian in January 2015 and added a director which Trian had recommended to its board. It then engaged in cost-cutting measures which improved its profit margins. In May 2016, Trian sold its entire stake of PepsiCo which at the time was worth over $2 billion and was a 50%
return on investment Return on investment (ROI) or return on costs (ROC) is the ratio between net income (over a period) and investment (costs resulting from an investment of some resources at a point in time). A high ROI means the investment's gains compare favorab ...
from its initial purchase in 2012. In October 2015, Trian bought a $2.5 billion stake in
General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...
. In May 2019, Peltz and Garden joined Legg Mason's board of directors. At the time, Trian had a 4.5% stake in the company. When Franklin Templeton Investments acquired Legg Mason in July 2020, Trian made a $70 million profit. In October 2020, Trian acquired 9.9% stakes in both
Invesco Invesco Ltd. is an American independent investment management company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with branch offices in 20 countries. Its common stock is a constituent of the S&P 500 and trades on the New York Stock Exchange. Invesco oper ...
and
Janus Henderson Janus Henderson is a British-American global asset management group headquartered in the City of London, United Kingdom. It offers a range of financial products to individuals, intermediary advisors, and institutional investors globally under the ...
. Peltz and Garden then joined Invesco's board of directors. On February 1, 2022, Peltz and Garden left the board after Trian noted Invesco's financial performance had significantly improved. At the same time, Trian increased its stake in Janus Henderson to 16.7%, becoming its biggest shareholder with Peltz and Garden joining its board. Performance for Janus Henderson lagged and Trian wanted to exercise more control. In May 2022, Trian announced it was considering a significant transaction with
Wendy's Wendy's International, LLC, is an American international fast food restaurant chain founded by Dave Thomas (businessman), Dave Thomas on November 15, 1969, in Columbus, Ohio. Its headquarters moved to Dublin, Ohio, on January 29, 2006. As of D ...
. This included selling it, acquiring it entirely or merging it with another company. As it invested in the predecessor company of Wendy's, it held 19.4% of shares in the company at the time, making it the largest shareholder. However, in January 2023, Trian stated it would drop these plans as Wendy's announced a corporate redesign, doubled its dividend to increase its share price and also announced a $500 million
share repurchase Share repurchase, also known as share buyback or stock buyback, is the reacquisition by a company of its own shares. It represents an alternate and more flexible way (relative to dividends) of returning money to shareholders. Repurchases allow s ...
program.


Proxy fights

In 2006, Trian was involved in a
proxy fight A proxy fight, proxy contest or proxy battle is an unfriendly contest for control over an organization. The event usually occurs when a corporation's stockholders develop opposition to some aspect of the corporate governance, often focusing on dir ...
with
Heinz The Kraft Heinz Foods Company, formerly the H. J. Heinz Company and commonly known as Heinz (), is an American food processing company headquartered at One PPG Place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company was founded by Henry J. Heinz in 1869. ...
to get five independent directors on the board of Heinz. Trian succeeded in getting two members on the board, including Peltz. In May 2015, Trian was unsuccessful in a proxy fight to appoint four of its nominees to the board of
DuPont Dupont, DuPont, Du Pont, duPont, or du Pont may refer to: People * Dupont (surname) Dupont, also spelled as DuPont, duPont, Du Pont, or du Pont is a French surname meaning "of the bridge", historically indicating that the holder of the surname re ...
. Five months later the CEO of DuPont,
Ellen Kullman Ellen J. Kullman (born January 22, 1956) is a United States Executive officer, business executive. Since November 2019, she has been the chief executive officer of Carbon (company). She was formerly Chairman, Chair and Chief executive officer, Chi ...
, resigned and DuPont acknowledged lower than expected earnings and the need to accelerate a cost-cutting plan. In October 2017, Peltz tried but failed to acquire a seat on the board of
Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/con ...
, in which Trian had a 1.5% stake. On November 15, it was discovered that per a revision of all votes, which Peltz acknowledged to have resulted in a remarkably close battle, Peltz had in fact won the proxy battle, recognized as the largest in corporate history. On December 15, Procter & Gamble named Peltz to its board, although it said that Peltz had nominally lost the proxy vote. In August 2021, Peltz stepped down from the board. In January 2023, Peltz and Trian officially launched a proxy fight with
Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...
and was looking to get a board seat at the company. Peltz did not support the reappointment of
Bob Iger Robert Alan Iger (; born February 10, 1951) is an American media executive who is chief executive officer (CEO) of the Walt Disney Company. He previously was the president of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) between 1994 and 1995 and p ...
as CEO and the departure of
Bob Chapek Robert Alan Chapek (born 1959) is an American businessman and former media executive who was the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Walt Disney Company from 2020 to 2022. He joined Masimo's board of directors in 2024. Before becoming CEO, Ch ...
in December 2022. In an online presentation titled "Restore the Magic", Peltz and Trian said that Disney had poor strategic planning, excessive compensation practices, and unsatisfactory cost management. It was pointed out that the
acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney The acquisition of Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc. by The Walt Disney Company was announced on December 14, 2017, and was completed on March 20, 2019. Among other key assets, the acquisition included the 20th Century Fox film and television studi ...
put it in a weak financial position. On February 9, the proxy fight was ended after Disney unveiled a vast restructuring plan, cost cuts and 7,000 layoffs. According to reports, by October 2023, Trian had increased its stake in Disney to approximately 30 million shares worth over $2.5 billion in a new push, this time for multiple board seats. On December 1, Peltz and Trian launched a second proxy fight against Disney with the aim of getting at least three board seats at the company. Sources claim Peltz's main issues were with Disney's share price and margins as well as the board's decision to extend Iger's tenure by two years to the end of 2026. Peltz was not elected in his second attempt.


References


External links

* {{authority control 2005 establishments in New York City Financial services companies established in 2005 Hedge fund firms in New York City Investment management companies of the United States Privately held companies based in New York City Institutional investors Shareholder-rights activists