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China To License DuPont Technology Yo Build Ethanol Plant
Christopher Doering, 10:24 a.m. CDT July 16, 2015
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(Photo: PHILIPPE HUGUEN, AFP/Getty Images)
DuPont said Thursday it will license its technology to construct the largest cellulosic ethanol manufacturing plant in China.
As part of the agreement with New Tianlong Industry Co., DuPont said it will license its ethanol technology and some of its enzymes to produce renewable biofuel from the leftover biomass on Jilin Province corn farms. Details of the agreement were not announced.
New Tianlong Industry must still get the Chinese government to approve the deal.
DuPont, the parent company of Johnston-based Pioneer, is spending about $225 million to build one of the nation's first cellulosic ethanol plants in Nevada, Iowa, using corncobs, stalks and other crop residue to make the renewable fuel. It's scheduled to open this fall.
"As we bring online the largest and most sophisticated cellulosic facility in the world in the state of Iowa in the United States, we are simultaneously working with leaders who share the same vision of producing the next generation of clean renewable fuels in their region," said Jan Koninckx, global biofuels leader for DuPont Industrial Biosciences.
Blessings to All
TRUTH
Goldman Sachs Recaptures Mojo With DuPont Win
By DAVID BENOIT and JUSTIN BAER-Updated May 21, 2015 11:17 p.m. ET
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Goldman Sachs headquarters in New York. A recent victory enabled the bank to regain some bragging rights. PHOTO: SPENCER PLATT/GETTY IMAGES
For months, Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s activism-defense business has been the butt of competitors’ jokes.
“If you want to lose, hire Goldman Sachs,” quipped Rob Kindler, the head of mergers and acquisitions at the firm’s arch rival Morgan Stanley, at a conference in March.
Goldman Sachs, long considered to be the firm to beat on Wall Street, endured a pair of stinging defeats lately in its efforts to help clients ward off activist investors. In May, auction house Sotheby’s opted to settle a bitter quarrel with Daniel Loeb, giving the activist three seats on its board and paying him some $10 million for expenses. Darden Restaurants Inc., another client, lost all 12 of its board seats to Starboard Value LP in October.
But the tables turned last week when Goldman—led by the firm’s head of defense William Anderson—helped DuPont Co. fend off activist firm Trian Fund Management LP in a high-stakes, high-profile battle.
The win has allowed Goldman to regain some bragging rights in what is becoming one of Wall Street’s most competitive arenas. As activists become increasingly aggressive, advising companies on how to defend themselves has become a niche, if not always lucrative, business for many banks.
Banks that help companies defend against activists can win an inside track for the clients’ future deals later, where there is real money to be made. For instance, Goldman Sachs last year advised eBay Inc. in its fight with Carl Icahn and then won a mandate to help eBay separate its PayPal unit.
And despite its public ribbing by Mr. Kindler, Goldman is still the No. 1 firm in terms of being hired to help a company defend itself against activists, according to FactSet, acting for eight companies this year, including Macerich Co., retailer Children’s Place Inc., and retirement-home operator Brookdale Senior Living Inc. In 2014, Goldman was also the most active, advising on 23 public campaigns. Among its historic wins were Clorox Co., Oshkosh Corp. and AOL Inc.
Still, the advisers on many campaigns never come to light, making it hard to measure one bank’s performance against another.
At Goldman, the job of leading the defense for DuPont and the firm’s other clients has fallen to 49-year-old Mr. Anderson since 2003. Mr. Anderson and his team report to the bank’s heads of global mergers and acquisitions.
When Mr. Anderson took the job, the business of advising on activist-defense barely existed and hostile deals were slow. Other bankers were reluctant to take such a job, afraid it wouldn’t generate much revenue, or yield them bonuses, people familiar with the matter say.
But by tapping his legal background—he had previously been a lawyer at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP—Mr. Anderson began monitoring regulatory filings that disclose when an investment firm buys into a company.
Mr. Anderson studied previous campaigns to learn the tendencies of activists, and he got to know them. He compiled detailed dossiers on the leading activist investors, such as Mr. Icahn and William Ackman, centralizing information that could be used by fellow Goldman bankers.
A key to Mr. Anderson’s approach, the people say, has been his ability to help clients understand and better cope with activists, who can wield tremendous power—even simply by doing a television interview—and swallow management’s time.
“As an activist, when Bill Anderson is on the other side, you have to be on your toes,” said Steve Wolosky, a lawyer for activists at Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP.
In the case of DuPont, John Vaske, who has a long relationship with DuPont as co-chairman of the firm’s global natural-resources group, worked closely with Mr. Anderson. DuPont was also advised by bankers at Evercore Partners Inc. including Roger Altman, the advisory firm’s founder and a former deputy Treasury Secretary.
After Trian, led by Nelson Peltz, began its DuPont campaign roughly two years ago, Messrs. Anderson and Vaske helped review Trian’s suggestions to break up the company and slash costs, according to people familiar with the matter—moves that the board largely rejected.
Mr. Peltz campaigned for a board seat and while some investors questioned the danger of adding a single director from Trian, the Goldman bankers helped to argue the case that as a director, Mr. Peltz would be overly focused on a breakup to the detriment of the company.
Influential proxy-advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. and Glass Lewis & Co. had recommended shareholders elect Mr. Peltz to the board. DuPont was caught off guard by the Glass Lewis decision and the Goldman bankers helped prepare DuPont’s management as it rushed to persuade large investors who tend to agree with such recommendations.
“Goldman Sachs has been a longtime valued adviser,” a DuPont spokeswoman said. “We have benefited greatly from their ongoing engagement as we have continued to build and position the next-generation DuPont over the last several months.”
While DuPont ended as a win for Goldman Sachs, many bankers say that such victories may become increasingly rare across Wall Street. Activists are becoming more sophisticated as they agitate for change, making it harder for companies to swat them away.
“DuPont’s victory is a notable exception to the growing trend of activist victories,” lawyers at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen, & Katz, long a Goldman ally, wrote to clients this week, adding the campaign itself “underscores the challenges faced by all companies dealing with activists in the current environment.”
Blessings to All
TRUTH
DuPont Ups Proxy War Rhetoric
Jeff Mordock, The News Journal 8:54 p.m. EDT April 9, 2015
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Signs that the proxy war between DuPont, led by CEO Ellen Kullman (pictured), and Trian hedge fund, led by Nelson Peltz, will go down to the wire is evident, experts say, by tactics seen this week.
(Photo: ROBERT CRAIG/THE NEWS JOURNAL)
DuPont's multiple efforts this week to reach shareholders deciding the proxy war with Trian Fund Management is a sign the vote margin is razor thin at the moment, experts said.
The chemical company went on the attack this week to sway stock owners to support its board candidates over those nominated by Trian, a New York hedge fund led by activist investor Nelson Peltz.
On Monday, DuPont filed an investor presentation claiming Trian's potential plan to split the company could exceed $4 billion in costs in the first year. DuPont followed the presentation with a Thursday shareholder letter detailing the collective advantages of its board candidates.
Trian, which owns a 2.7 percent stake in DuPont, initiated a proxy war in January to place four candidates, including Peltz, on DuPont's 12-member board.
"The [DuPont] board recommends that shareholders support all of its nominees because Trian's nominees do not bring skills or expertise that are additive to the DuPont board and are committed to Trian's value destructive breakup agenda," the company's current board members wrote in the Thursday letter.
In addition to the shareholder communications, Harvard Business School fellow and former Medtronic Chief Executive Officer Bill George authored an opinion article in the New York Times. George alleged Trian's plan for DuPont would negatively impact the company's research and development pipeline.
George's article followed Yale School of Management professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld's opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal claiming activist investors often produce sluggish returns after joining a corporate board.
Gregg Schmidt, a DuPont spokesman, said the recent efforts are an attempt to educate shareholders about their choices in the proxy war.
"We are reaching out to our shareholders in advance of our annual meeting to ensure they are informed about the importance of voting for DuPont's directors," Schmidt said. "It is important for DuPont shareholders to be well-informed so they can protect their investment."
Trian responded to DuPont's recent shareholder offensive with their own stockholder letter. In the letter, Trian's management accused DuPont of attempting to draw attention away from what they claimed is a lackluster financial performance.
"DuPont is attempting to distract and mislead stockholders from the real issues at the company – its consistently subpar performance and, in our view, management's lack of confidence in the company's future," Peltz and the other management members wrote.
Analysts said the increased rhetoric could mean the proxy war may be decided by only a few votes.
"I think the pace of things that both sides are putting out there implies to me that this is viewed as a pretty close contest," said Matt Arnold, an analyst with Edward Jones Investments in St. Louis.
Charles Elson, a professor of corporate governance at the University of Delaware, said he expects both sides to use every resource they can to make their point. He agreed that this week's DuPont activity is a sign of a very contentious and tight proxy vote.
"You don't turn up the heat unless you believe there is an issue," he said. "To me, this means DuPont thinks this will be a close call."
Elson added that the pace of shareholder presentations by both sides will likely increase before the shareholders cast their vote at the May 13 annual meeting at DuPont's Chestnut Run headquarters.
"I would not say that any of this is very unusual," he said. "In fact, it will become more vociferous as we get closer to the wire."
TRUTH
Stock Sales by DuPont CEO Raise Eyebrows
By DAVID BENOIT and JACOB BUNGE Updated Feb. 9, 2015 9:29 p.m. ET
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DuPont says CEO Ellen Kullman’s exposure to DuPont stock is four times the level the board requires. PHOTO: BLOOMBERG NEWS
The battle over board seats at DuPont Co. is spreading to the stockholdings of its chief executive and chairman, Ellen Kullman .
Ms. Kullman in September exercised stock options and sold more than half a million shares of DuPont stock, valued at about $37.5 million, drawing attention as the chemical company seeks to fend off Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund Management LP.
Trian and other investors are raising questions about those sales, which came after the activist investment firm went public with its campaign to split DuPont’s businesses. Following Trian’s move, DuPont shares hit 15-year highs.
Combined with other, earlier sales that also came from exercising stock options, Ms. Kullman last year reduced her total exposure to DuPont stock by 35%, according to a review of her filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Ms. Kullman’s sales were made pursuant to a prearranged trading program that couldn’t be stopped because it was around the time DuPont was set to release its earnings report, DuPont said.
“Ellen Kullman’s compensation is closely aligned with DuPont performance and shareholder interests,” the company said in a statement. “She has consistently maintained a large ownership position, which has increased over time and comprises the majority of her personal net worth.”
The company says her exposure to the stock is four times the level the board requires, and her directly held shares have increased. Last week, she was awarded another batch of stock and options. Ms. Kullman, who has been with the company since 1988, owns about $36.2 million in direct shares plus nearly 1.1 million options.
Regulatory filings show that Ms. Kullman’s sales in September and throughout 2014 were part of a so-called 10b5-1 plan. These plans are set in advance, for example, with automatic price triggers governing when shares are bought and sold. They are commonly used by executives and insiders who may want to sell some shares over time, but who—without the plan—could encounter restrictions because they are often in possession of material nonpublic information that can move shares.
Sales by executives and insiders, even under such plans, can trigger concerns among other shareholders that the sales may signal an insider doesn’t believe the shares will go higher. Ms. Kullman’s plan called for the exercise of some of her options when the share price crossed $70.
Tony Gleason, a portfolio manager for Neuberger Berman, which owns about $180 million in DuPont shares, called Ms. Kullman’s sales “alarming.” Neuberger discussed its concerns with the company, a Neuberger spokesman said.
DuPont shares climbed 5.2% on Sept. 17 after Trian made public its aim to split DuPont. Within days, the stock traded above $70 a share for the first time since 2000.
Ms. Kullman’s plan exercised options and sold the resulting shares on Sept. 18 and Sept. 24, filings show.
“It’s either dumb luck or dumb bad luck, depending how you look at it,” said Frank Glassner, chief executive of Veritas Executive Compensation Consultants, which advises corporations on pay matters.
Some corporate-pay experts say it is rare to see a CEO sell about one-third of her holdings in a single year, even when transactions are controlled by a stock-selling program. DuPont said the amount was in line with peers.
Activists, who take positions in companies and agitate for strategic, financial or other changes, often seize on such sales to challenge management.
DuPont’s battle with Trian already intensified last week when DuPont rejected the idea of putting Mr. Peltz on its board, while naming two new directors of its own choosing.
“We believe Ms. Kullman’s significant stock sales, soon after Trian released its letter to the board in mid-September 2014 and the stock hit a 15-year high, were inappropriate and betray a lack of confidence in her ‘plan to deliver higher growth and higher value to shareholders,’” Trian said in a statement.
InsiderScore.com, which monitors such filings, said in a report the sales “raised red flags and sent a negative value message.”
Ben Silverman , director of research at InsiderScore, said the firm viewed the sale as significant because of what it signaled Ms. Kullman believed about the valuation when she set up her insider-trading plan.
Still, Mr. Silverman and others said the magnitude of the sale didn’t raise eyebrows from a governance perspective.
“It is not what I consider egregious,” Mr. Silverman said.
TRUTH
DuPont Names Spin-off ‘Chemours’
Industry: The performance chemicals business will focus on organic growth, cash generation
By Alexander H. Tullo January 5, 2015
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DuPont will to leave its Wilmington, Del., headquarters (top) for new office space in Chestnut Run (right). Credit: Newscom
Credit: Delaware Governor’s Office
A new chemical company, ranked among the largest in the U.S., is born.
Chemours is the name of the performance chemicals business DuPont intends to spin off as a new company next year. The firm will occupy a building in Wilmington, Del., that DuPont, after more than 100 years, is vacating.
AThe name Chemours is a nod to DuPont’s full name, E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. And the ticker symbol that the firm will trade under on the New York Stock Exchange, “CC,” is a play on DuPont’s “DD.” DuPont shareholders will be entitled to shares in Chemours.
In a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), DuPont disclosed that the businesses to become Chemours earned $430 million in pretax income on $4.9 billion in sales during the first nine months of 2014. Chemours’s biggest business, the white pigment titanium dioxide, makes up 46% of sales. Fluoroproducts account for 36% of sales. The rest of Chemours’s businesses are in sodium cyanide, sulfuric acid, aniline, and other chemicals.
If Chemours had existed in 2013, its $6.9 billion in sales would have made it the 11th-largest chemical company in the U.S., behind Eastman Chemical.
DuPont announced its intention to spin off the performance chemicals business in 2013 as part of a plan to focus on biotechnology, agriculture, electronic materials, and other endeavors that are high growth and technology intensive. “DuPont and Chemours will each be global leaders, well positioned to pursue their respective objectives and strategies,” DuPont CEO Ellen J. Kullman says.
DuPont also will exit the city of Wilmington, where it has been headquartered for more than a century. The company is moving its base to Chestnut Run, not far from Wilmington in New Castle County, Del., where in 2012 it opened a 220,000-sq-ft office building. Chemours will call the DuPont Building in Wilmington home, at least initially. Trian Partners, the activist investment firm that owns a nearly 3% stake in DuPont, has criticized DuPont for its expensive Wilmington real estate.
Chemours’s 9,100 employees will be led by CEO Mark P. Vergnano, who has run the performance chemicals unit for DuPont since 2009. The SEC filing says Chemours’s strategy will be to pursue organic growth, primarily through capacity expansions, and to penetrate developing markets.
DuPont is targeting a high-yield credit rating of “BB” for the new firm and plans to spin it off with a “commensurate debt level.” Chemours will have $274 million worth of environmental remediation expenses.
John Roberts, a stock analyst with UBS, told clients in a research note that the targeted credit rating implies DuPont is saddling Chemours with $2.3 billion in debt. The relatively high debt level could initially chase off some investors in Chemours, he wrote, although the new firm should be able to build equity and reduce risk.
“We believe any negative effects could be short-term,” Roberts said, noting that the company could move to a higher, investment-grade, credit rating within a few years.
TRUTH
$DD DD Notes ~ http://www.ddnotesmaker.com/DD
bullish buy
island reversal, now breakout
$DD recent news/filings
## source: finance.yahoo.com
Tue, 23 Sep 2014 17:20:16 GMT ~ Midday Glance: Chemicals companies
read full: http://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/midday-glance-chemicals-companies-183343340.html
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Tue, 23 Sep 2014 17:20:16 GMT ~ Midday Glance: Chemicals companies
read full: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/midday-glance-chemicals-companies-174151782.html
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Tue, 23 Sep 2014 16:00:00 GMT ~ Dow Jones (DJIA) Today: E I Du Pont De Nemours & Company (DD) Lower
read full: http://www.thestreet.com/story/12889326/1/dow-jones-djia-today-e-i-du-pont-de-nemours-company-dd-lower.html?puc=yahoo&cm_ven=YAHOO
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Tue, 23 Sep 2014 14:29:47 GMT ~ Early Glance: Chemicals companies
read full: http://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/early-glance-chemicals-companies-142638834--finance.html
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Tue, 23 Sep 2014 14:29:47 GMT ~ Early Glance: Chemicals companies
read full: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/early-glance-chemicals-companies-143340677.html
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$DD charts
basic chart ## source: stockcharts.com
basic chart ## source: stockscores.com
big daily chart ## source: stockcharts.com
big weekly chart ## source: stockcharts.com
$DD company information
## source: otcmarkets.com
Link: http://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/DD/company-info
Ticker: $DD
OTC Market Place: Not Available
CIK code: 0000030554
Company name: Du Pont (E.I.) De Nemours & Co., Inc.
Company website: http://www.dupont.com
Incorporated In: DE, USA
Business Description:
$DD share structure
## source: otcmarkets.com
Market Value: $65,430,650,580 a/o Sep 22, 2014
Shares Outstanding: 915,242,000 a/o Jul 15, 2014
Float: Not Available
Authorized Shares: Not Available
Par Value: 1.6666
$DD extra dd links
Company name: Du Pont (E.I.) De Nemours & Co., Inc.
Company website: http://www.dupont.com
## STOCK DETAILS ##
After Hours Quote (nasdaq.com): http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/DD/after-hours
Option Chain (nasdaq.com): http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/DD/option-chain
Historical Prices (yahoo.com): http://finance.yahoo.com/q/hp?s=DD+Historical+Prices
Company Profile (yahoo.com): http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=DD+Profile
Industry (yahoo.com): http://finance.yahoo.com/q/in?s=DD+Industry
## COMPANY NEWS ##
Market Stream (nasdaq.com): http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/DD/stream
Latest news (otcmarkets.com): http://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/DD/news - http://finance.yahoo.com/q/h?s=DD+Headlines
## STOCK ANALYSIS ##
Analyst Research (nasdaq.com): http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/DD/analyst-research
Guru Analysis (nasdaq.com): http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/DD/guru-analysis
Stock Report (nasdaq.com): http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/DD/stock-report
Competitors (nasdaq.com): http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/DD/competitors
Stock Consultant (nasdaq.com): http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/DD/stock-consultant
Stock Comparison (nasdaq.com): http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/DD/stock-comparison
Investopedia (investopedia.com): http://www.investopedia.com/markets/stocks/DD/?wa=0
Research Reports (otcmarkets.com): http://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/DD/research
Basic Tech. Analysis (yahoo.com): http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ta?s=DD+Basic+Tech.+Analysis
Barchart (barchart.com): http://www.barchart.com/quotes/stocks/DD
DTCC (dtcc.com): http://search2.dtcc.com/?q=Du+Pont+%28E.I.%29+De+Nemours+%26+Co.%2C+Inc.&x=10&y=8&sp_p=all&sp_f=ISO-8859-1
Spoke company information (spoke.com): http://www.spoke.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=Du+Pont+%28E.I.%29+De+Nemours+%26+Co.%2C+Inc.
Corporation WIKI (corporationwiki.com): http://www.corporationwiki.com/search/results?term=Du+Pont+%28E.I.%29+De+Nemours+%26+Co.%2C+Inc.&x=0&y=0
WHOIS (domaintools.com): http://whois.domaintools.com/http://www.dupont.com
Alexa (alexa.com): http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/http://www.dupont.com#
Corporate website internet archive (archive.org): http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.dupont.com
## FUNDAMENTALS ##
Call Transcripts (nasdaq.com): http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/DD/call-transcripts
Annual Report (companyspotlight.com): http://www.companyspotlight.com/library/companies/keyword/DD
Income Statement (nasdaq.com): http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/DD/financials?query=income-statement
Revenue/EPS (nasdaq.com): http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/DD/revenue-eps
SEC Filings (nasdaq.com): http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/DD/sec-filings
Edgar filings (sec.gov): http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0000030554&owner=exclude&count=40
Latest filings (otcmarkets.com): http://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/DD/filings
Latest financials (otcmarkets.com): http://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/DD/financials
Short Interest (nasdaq.com): http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/DD/short-interest
Dividend History (nasdaq.com): http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/DD/dividend-history
RegSho (regsho.com): http://www.regsho.com/tools/symbol_stats.php?sym=DD&search=search
OTC Short Report (otcshortreport.com): http://otcshortreport.com/index.php?index=DD
Short Sales (otcmarkets.com): http://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/DD/short-sales
Key Statistics (yahoo.com): http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=DD+Key+Statistics
Insider Roster (yahoo.com): http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ir?s=DD+Insider+Roster
Income Statement (yahoo.com): http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=DD
Balance Sheet (yahoo.com): http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=DD
Cash Flow (yahoo.com): http://finance.yahoo.com/q/cf?s=DD+Cash+Flow&annual
## HOLDINGS ##
Major holdings (cnbc.com): http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/DD/tab/8.1
Insider transactions (yahoo.com): http://finance.yahoo.com/q/it?s=DD+Insider+Transactions
Insider transactions (secform4.com): http://www.secform4.com/insider-trading/DD.htm
Insider transactions (insidercrow.com): http://www.insidercow.com/history/company.jsp?company=DD
Ownership Summary (nasdaq.com): http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/DD/ownership-summary
Institutional Holdings (nasdaq.com): http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/DD/institutional-holdings
Insiders (SEC Form 4) (nasdaq.com): http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/DD/insider-trades
Insider Disclosure (otcmarkets.com): http://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/DD/insider-transactions
## SOCIAL MEDIA AND OTHER VARIOUS SOURCES ##
PST (pennystocktweets.com): http://www.pennystocktweets.com/stocks/profile/DD
Market Watch (marketwatch.com): http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/DD
Bloomberg (bloomberg.com): http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/DD:US
Morningstar (morningstar.com): http://quotes.morningstar.com/stock/s?t=DD
Bussinessweek (businessweek.com): http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot_article.asp?ticker=DD
$DD DD Notes ~ http://www.ddnotesmaker.com/DD
DuPont Shares Rise as Firm Placates Activist Investor Trian
Activist investor Nelson Peltz's Trian Fund urges DuPont to split into two
By M Rochan September 17, 2014 15:07 BST
Click For ibitimes.com Link
DuPont's shares rise as firm responds to activist investor seeking its breakup.Reuters
DuPont's stock rose in early trading in New York, on news that the firm had a "constructive dialogue" with a major shareholder, Trian Fund Management, after the latter called on the chemicals giant to break itself up.
US-based DuPont's stock was trading 4.66% higher at 0947 EDT.
Earlier, DuPont, responding to Trian's campaign urging it to split into two, said in a statement: "Our board of directors and management team have taken firm action over several years that has delivered 220% total shareholder return since year-end 2008, compared to 144% for the S&P 500 during the same period...
"The board and management team remain committed to executing on our strategic plan to drive growth and profitability. The recently announced first phase of our redesign initiative to drive down costs by $1bn [£613m, €771m] and embed greater efficiencies, together with the separation of Performance Chemicals and our $5bn share repurchase program, reflect our board and management's commitment to enhance value for all DuPont shareholders.
"DuPont welcomes open communications with shareholders and values input toward our common goal of enhancing shareholder value...we have had a constructive dialogue with Trian."
Activist investor Nelson Peltz's Trian, among DuPont's largest shareholders, had asked the conglomerate to separate its high-growth businesses from those that generate strong cash flows.
Trian, which holds a $1.6bn stake in DuPont, wants the company to split into two - one holding its fast-growing agriculture, nutrition and health and industrial biosciences divisions. The other holding its cyclical businesses such as performance materials, safety and protection, electronics and communications.
Peltz said his proposal will eliminate $2bn to $4bn in annual costs and double the value of DuPont's shares over three years, saying the firm's conglomerate structure was "destroying value".
Petlz, in a 16 September letter to DuPont's board, argued that the firm's plan to hive off its performance chemical unit, which makes materials used in non-stick cookware, refrigerants and a white pigment used in toothpastes, and its stock buyback programme were "not enough to optimise shareholder value."
DuPont's stock, which finished at $65.83 on 16 September, has gained some 6.5% this year. The stock has surged some 15.5% over the past twelve months.
TRUTH
When the activist news came?
Trian Makes Case To Break Up DuPont
Activist Wants to Split Off Faster-Growing Agriculture, Nutrition Units
By DAVID BENOIT and JACOB BUNGE
Sept. 16, 2014 11:01 p.m. ET
Click For wsj.com Link
DuPont CEO Ellen Kullman is already shedding a business that makes household paint and Teflon. Bloomberg
An activist investor with a successful track record has launched a campaign to force DuPont Co. DD +3.83% to break itself up after the 212-year-old chemical giant rebuffed its repeated private calls for change.
Trian Fund Management LP plans to seek support from other investors for its push to dismantle the company, according to a letter it sent DuPont's board Tuesday that was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Trian said it plans to release the letter widely after more than a year of unsuccessful private efforts to persuade.
Trian has a $1.6 billion DuPont stake, according to the letter, which would make it a top-10 holder in the Delaware company with nearly 3% of the stock, according to recent disclosures. Trian first invested more than $1 billion in DuPont in early 2013, and it added to its position recently when the stock fell after the company cut its earnings guidance.
DuPont said it welcomes shareholder communications and has had "constructive dialogue with Trian." It added that it is committed to its plans to cut costs and to "enhance value for all DuPont shareholders."
The escalating battle pits one of Wall Street's most successful activist firms against a bastion of American industry whose roots date back to 1802, when founder E.I. du Pont built gunpowder mills in Delaware.
Trian argues that an overly complex and bloated corporate structure overburdens DuPont's seven business lines, some of which the activist firm argues bear little relation to one another, making it difficult for both investors and the company itself to gauge its prospects.
Trian already has the support of another significant shareholder. The California State Teachers' Retirement System, or Calstrs, cosigned earlier letters reviewed by the Journal that Trian wrote to DuPont. Calstrs owns about a $250 million stake in DuPont, the letters said. The pension fund, which has worked with activists successfully in the past to push companies to break up, is an investor in Trian funds.
Trian's argument to DuPont is similar to ones it has successfully pressed at other companies, including Kraft Foods Inc. and Ingersoll-Rand IR +0.82% PLC: Create one public company made up of faster-growing segments—in DuPont's case that would include its agriculture and nutrition businesses—and create another with operations that generate strong cash flows, which would include specialty-chemical products, Kevlar body armor and Tyvek construction materials.
DuPont is already shedding a business known as performance chemicals that makes household paint and Teflon. While Trian supports that move, it's calling for more. "These actions are not moving the needle," Trian co-founder Nelson Peltz said in an interview. "It's not dealing with the problem."
Trian said its plan would eliminate $2 billion to $4 billion in annual costs. It would also enable DuPont's separated units to improve performance because they would be less bound by corporate red tape and better motivated and focused, the firm said.
Trian, which has taken particular aim at a DuPont corporate theater, country club and hotel, said the moves could double the value of the company's stock over three years.
Ed Garden, Trian's chief investment officer and co-founder, said the portfolio is "overly complex" to manage. "This will be an analysis that gets everybody thinking," he said.
Trian said it's taking the campaign public after DuPont rejected its suggestions during private meetings and declined repeated requests for board representation. DuPont is one of Trian's three biggest positions, alongside stakes in Mondelez International Inc. and PepsiCo Inc. PEP +1.50%
DuPont Chief Executive Ellen Kullman has said a transformation is already under way at DuPont. Last October, the company announced the plan to spin off its performance-chemicals business, a slower-growing unit that makes up nearly 20% of revenue. Following that move, Trian told DuPont privately that it would give the company time to hit financial forecasts, according to Trian's letter.
But in June, DuPont lowered its expectations for full-year profits, the latest in what Trian considers a string of misses by the company's management. Trian again sought to gain board representation and was rebuffed, the latest letter said.
Trian executives said they would consider launching a proxy fight for representation on DuPont's board or, if necessary, a nonbinding shareholder vote to push the company to explore a breakup.
Trian may not succeed in a campaign to win over other DuPont shareholders. The stock is up by about 160% since Ms. Kullman took over as CEO in January 2009, outpacing the gain in the S&P 500 stock index. DuPont shares rose 0.8% Tuesday to $65.83, giving it a market capitalization of about $60 billion.
Ms. Kullman has won plaudits for helping the company recover from the financial crisis, which ate into demand for its construction and other products, and investors have supported DuPont's moves to sell or spin off lower-profit divisions over the past two years.
Ms. Kullman and DuPont have argued that even seemingly unrelated businesses can benefit from cross-selling products and drawing on a deeper pool of corporate research and development. She has pointed to an insecticide called Rynaxypyr and a carpet fiber made from corn stalks. DuPont has also planned a $5 billion share buyback and pledged to cut $1 billion in annual costs.
Some analysts have questioned how regularly the company's R&D produces meaningful breakthroughs, and Trian said it doesn't justify keeping DuPont together.
Trian points as evidence for its argument to DuPont's 2013 sale of its specialty-coatings unit to private-equity firm Carlyle Group LP for $4.9 billion. Carlyle last month filed to take that company public after significantly boosting earnings—a sign, Trian said, of the potential for breaking up the rest of DuPont.
Trian's plan calls for one company composed of the agriculture, nutrition and health and industrial biosciences segments, faster-growing operations that involve heavy research and development costs. Another company would include the performance materials, safety and protection, and electronics and communications businesses. Those fluctuate with commodity and economic cycles, but they earn more cash that could help pay larger dividends, Trian said.
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Dupont fined $1.275 million in West Virginia toxic pollution case
BY CAREY GILLAM Wed Aug 27, 2014 4:30pm EDT
Click For reuters.com Link
A DuPont logo is pictured on the research center in Meyrin near Geneva August 4, 2009.
CREDIT: REUTERS/DENIS BALIBOUSE
(Reuters) - DuPont will pay a fine of $1.275 million and spend an estimated $2.3 million more to settle claims by U.S. officials that the global chemical conglomerate failed to prevent toxic releases of hazardous substances in West Virginia that killed at least one man, environmental regulators said on Wednesday.
E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co reached the settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Justice in a case about eight alleged releases of harmful levels of hazardous substances between May 2006 and January 2010 from a DuPont facility in Belle, West Virginia, the EPA said.
Several of the releases posed "significant risk to people" and a nearby river, the government said in statement announcing the settlement. One DuPont worker died after exposure to a toxic gas released due to DuPont’s "failure to comply with industry accident prevention procedures," the EPA said.
The problems came to light in January 2010 when plant operators discovered that more than 2,000 pounds of methyl chloride had been leaking, and employees had failed to respond to alarms triggered by the release.
In addition to the $1.275 million penalty, DuPont is to take corrective actions to prevent future releases. The company has estimated it will spend $2.276 million to complete required improvements. The company said it already has spent nearly $7 million to comply with an EPA order for corrective measures.
DuPont expressed deep "regret" for the death of its employee in a statement issued Wednesday and pledged tight controls.
"We remain committed to meeting all regulatory requirements and operating at the highest standards for protection of our employees, contractors, community and the environment," the company said.
The EPA said that inspections of DuPont's records identified five incidents in which the company released harmful quantities of hazardous substances and then did not report the releases in a timely manner. The largest of these was the release of 80 tons of methanol into the Kanawha River in West Virginia on Sept. 21, 2010.
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Interesting October Stock Options for DuPont
StockOptionsChannel.com , Contributor
8/25/2014 @ 11:59AM
Click For forbes.com Link
Consistently, one of the more popular stocks people enter into their stock options watchlist at Stock Options Channel is DuPont (NYSE: DD). So this week we highlight one interesting put contract, and one interesting call contract, from the October expiration for DD.
The put contract our YieldBoost algorithm identified as particularly interesting, is at the $65 strike, which has a bid at the time of this writing of 58 cents. Collecting that bid as the premium represents a 0.9% return against the $65 commitment, or a 8.3% annualized rate of return (at Stock Options Channel we call this the YieldBoost).
Selling a put does not give an investor access to DD’s upside potential the way owning shares would, because the put seller only ends up owning shares in the scenario where the contract is exercised. So unless DuPont sees its shares decline 2% and the contract is exercised (resulting in a cost basis of $64.42 per share before broker commissions, subtracting the 58 cents from $65), the only upside to the put seller is from collecting that premium for the 8.3% annualized rate of return.
Interestingly, that annualized 8.3% figure actually exceeds the 2.8% annualized dividend paid by DuPont by 5.5%, based on the current share price of $66.34. And yet, if an investor was to buy the stock at the going market price in order to collect the dividend, there is greater downside because the stock would have to lose 2.03% to reach the $65 strike price.
Always important when discussing dividends is the fact that, in general, dividend amounts are not always predictable and tend to follow the ups and downs of profitability at each company. In the case of DuPont, looking at the dividend history chart for DD below can help in judging whether the most recent dividend is likely to continue, and in turn whether it is a reasonable expectation to expect a 2.8% annualized dividend yield.
Turning to the other side of the option chain, we highlight one call contract of particular interest for the October expiration, for shareholders of DuPont (NYSE: DD) looking to boost their income beyond the stock’s 2.8% annualized dividend yield. Selling the covered call at the $66.5 strike and collecting the premium based on the $1.04 bid, annualizes to an additional 14.7% rate of return against the current stock price (this is what we at Stock Options Channel refer to as the YieldBoost), for a total of 17.5% annualized rate in the scenario where the stock is not called away. Any upside above $66.5 would be lost if the stock rises there and is called away, but DD shares would have to advance 0.2% from current levels for that to happen, meaning that in the scenario where the stock is called, the shareholder has earned a 1.8% return from this trading level, in addition to any dividends collected before the stock was called.
The chart below shows the trailing twelve month trading history for DuPont, highlighting in green where the $65 strike is located relative to that history, and highlighting the $66.5 strike in red:
The chart above, and the stock’s historical volatility, can be a helpful guide in combination with fundamental analysis to judge whether selling the October put or call options highlighted in this article deliver a rate of return that represents good reward for the risks. We calculate the trailing twelve month volatility for DuPont (considering the last 251 trading day DD historical stock prices using closing values, as well as today’s price of $66.34) to be 15%.
In mid-afternoon trading on Monday, the put volume among S&P 500 components was 635,915 contracts, with call volume at 1.38M, for a put:call ratio of 0.46 so far for the day. Compared to the long-term median put:call ratio of .65, that represents very high call volume relative to puts; in other words, buyers are preferring calls in options trading so far today.
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U.S. Court Overturns Law Limiting Biotech Crops on Hawaiian island
Aug 25, 2014
By Carey Gillam
Click For Link
(Reuters) - A group of global biotech crop companies won a court victory on Monday that blocks enactment of a law passed last year limiting the planting of biotech crops and use of pesticides on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Kurren of the U.S. District Court in Hawaii ruled that the law passed in November by local leaders on the island was invalid because it was pre-empted by Hawaii state law.
The Kauai law required large agricultural companies to disclose pesticide use and genetically modified (GMO) crop plantings while establishing buffer zones around schools, homes and hospitals to protect people from exposure to pesticides used on the crops.
The measure had broad support on the island and the U.S. mainland from organizations and individuals who say heavy pesticide use by the agrochemical companies is poisoning people and the environment.
But in his ruling, Judge Kurren said county leaders on Kauai could not attempt local regulation, agreeing with arguments made by DuPont, Syngenta, Agrigenetics Inc, a company affiliated with the Dow AgroSciences unit of Dow Chemical Co, and BASF.
"This decision in no way diminishes the health and environmental concerns of the people of Kauai," the judge wrote in his ruling. "The court’s ruling simply recognizes that the State of Hawaii has established a comprehensive framework for addressing the application of restricted use pesticides and the planting of GMO crops, which presently precludes local regulation by the county."
The law was to take effect Aug. 16, but enactment was delayed pending a court decision after the seed and chemical companies filed suit in January. It is one of a growing number of local and state efforts across the United States to limit the expansion of GMO crops and the chemicals used on them.
Gary Hooser, the Kauai County councilman who introduced the law, said he and others would appeal Monday's ruling. There was no immediate comment from Syngenta, Dow, DuPont or BASF.
"This issue is far from over. Just another round," said Hooser. "One ruling by one federal magistrate does not resolve the issue."
The Hawaiian islands are a popular testing ground for biotech crops for many companies because of their favorable year-round climate. Syngenta, DuPont and Agrigenetics lease thousands of acres on the island for GMO crop testing and other work on genetically altered corn, soybeans, canola and rice.
The companies assert that biotech crops are essential to boost global food production and improve environmental sustainability. And they say the crops and the pesticides used on them are safe and already well regulated by state and federal agencies.
But critics say the crops and chemicals used on them are harmful to people, animals and the environment.
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