Nelson Peltz One Big Holder Vote Away From DuPont Board Seat, Tally Shows

By David Benoit And Jacob Bunge 

Nelson Peltz was one big shareholder away from a board seat at DuPont Co.

The activist investor won 293 million votes, or about 43% of those counted in last Wednesday's annual meeting, a result that made him close but short of taking a board seat, according to a new disclosure Tuesday of the preliminary tally.

Mr. Peltz received 77 million shares less than director Robert Brown, who had the lowest vote total of sitting DuPont directors that were reelected.

Mr. Peltz's Trian Fund Management LP lost the vote of top holders Vanguard Group Inc., State Street Corp. and BlackRock Inc., people familiar with the matter said last week. In order to make up the difference between Mr. Peltz and Mr. Brown, Trian would have likely needed only one of them to go the other way, as the swing of their shares would have made the difference.

In the end, Mr. Peltz got the highest count of his slate. The four DuPont directors Trian's nominees were up against got around 56%, but Mr. Peltz was the only dissident to garner more than 40%.

Trian nominee John Myers, the former head of General Electric Co.'s asset management business whom DuPont had at one point offered to take onto the board, got 36% of the votes cast.

Mr. Peltz and Mr. Myers had both won the recommendation of proxy adviser Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. Trian's other two nominees, Arthur Winkleblack and Robert Zatta, didn't get the ISS nod. They received 20% and 24%, respectfully.

DuPont Chairman and Chief Executive Ellen Kullman got 97% of the votes cast, the filing said, while lead independent director Alexander Cutler got 56%.

Write to David Benoit at [e-mail] and Jacob Bunge at [e-mail]

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