Maple Leaf Foods and West Face Capital reach an agreement
Maple Leaf Foods Inc. announced that it has reached an agreement with West Face Capital, a Toronto-based investment fund that owns approximately 11.4% of the company’s shares outstanding.
As part of the agreement, Maple Leaf Foods has appointed Gregory A. Boland to the Maple Leaf Board of Directors.
Mr. Boland will also serve on the Corporate Governance and Human Resources and Compensation Committees. Mr. Boland is the CEO of West Face Capital. West Face Capital will withdraw its requisition for a special meeting to vote on five, non-binding, advisory resolutions. Consequently, the Company’s Annual General Meeting of Shareholders will proceed as planned on April 28th but the advisory resolutions will not be considered.
“Mr. Boland’s appointment is part of an ongoing process to make changes in the composition and structure of our board that reflect the recent significant changes in our shareholder base,” said James Hankinson, Chair of the Governance Committee. “Mr. Boland brings both experience and perspective that will be an asset to the Board as we continue to build sustained shareholder value.”
“We are pleased to have reached this constructive resolution and look forward to working with Maple Leaf Foods to increase shareholder value” said Greg Boland.
In early January the Board retained Russell Reynolds Associates, a leading global executive search firm, which will assist the Board to identify a second new independent director for nomination to the Board at the 2011 Annual General Meeting. Pursuant to the agreement with West Face Capital, the Board will also reduce the number of directors to be nominated for election at the 2012 Annual General Meeting, from fourteen to ten or twelve. In the latter case, four of the incumbent directors will not be re-nominated and the Board will nominate two new independent directors.
The full text of the agreement will be available at www.sedar.com.
