Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. (HTZ): Carl Icahn Goes Activist and Nominates Three Independent Directors

A new development has been announced by the notorious investor Carl Icahn, who just a couple of weeks ago has initiated a stake in Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:HTZ). As a new filing with the SEC revealed, Carl Icahn has entered into an agreement-in-principle with the company to appoint three independent directors to the company ‘s Board. Following their appointment, three current directors will retire from the Board.

In addition to that, Mr. Icahn, who owns around 8.5% of Hertz’s Common Stock, has agreed not to conduct a proxy contest at the company’s next-year shareholders meeting and to support with his vote Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:HTZ)’s nominees, as it was said in a statement attached to the filing. Moreover, under the terms of the recent agreement, the shareholders rights plan adopted by Hertz’s board to prevent a hostile takeover will be modified to raise the triggering threshold to 20%.

“I believe Hertz is a great company and a great brand and that the right new CEO will return it to its former glory. We look forward to working with the Hertz Board to create value for all shareholders,” Mr. Icahn said in the press release.

Moreover, Mr. Icahn stated that his nominees are experienced people that have previously served as board members and will be able to help Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:HTZ) to appoint a new CEO. The former CEO and chairman, Mark Frissora, stepped down from his position at the beginning of September for “personal reasons”, according to a statement.

“I would like to thank the Hertz Board for acting so expeditiously in agreeing to appoint our three very capable nominees to the Board.  Since I believe that the most important person at a company is the CEO, I’m especially happy that two of our three nominees will be on the five-person committee to find a permanent CEO,” Mr. Icahn added.

Since, Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:HTZ) has faced some accounting problems recently, which made its stock decline in the first quarter of the year, knowing Mr. Icahn’s excellent record, his activism in the company might highly reward him and other shareholders.

Mr. Ichan was also excited to announce this development on his Twitter page:

Happy to have 3 nominees joining $HTZ Board soon http://t.co/tB37eyhCQM

— Carl Icahn (@Carl_C_Icahn) September 11, 2014

— Carl Icahn (@Carl_C_Icahn) September 11, 2014

Mr. Icahn’s stake amasses 38.8 million shares of Hertz, which makes him the largest shareholder among the investors that we keep track of. Another hedge fund manager that is betting on the company is Larry Robbins, the manager of Glenview Capital. Glenview has increased its stake by almost 50% during the second quarter, revealing ownership of some 19.7 million shares in its latest 13F filing.

Disclosure: none