Under investor pressure, P&G pushes growth, major cost cuts; First Quality orders sixth PM, an ATMOS

摘要

Under investor pressure, Procter & Gamble (P&G) will retain directors to its board if they gain simple majority approval from shareholders - dramatically easing a previous standard that required 80% shareholder opposition to drop a director from the board, the company reported at its annual meeting this week. The change opens the door for potentially new board members at the $84 billion/yr consumer products firm, and comes as P&G restructures and has committed to cut costs by $10 billion by 2017. Further, P&G chmn and pres/CEO Bob McDonald is under pressure from activist investor William Ackman to leave the firm. Ackman is founder and CEO of hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, which owns about 21 million P&G shares worth about $1.4 billion today. Ackman in the last few years also has been active in a buyout of Barnes & Noble, a proxy battle with Canadian Pacific Railway, and with buying shares in JC Penney.