Mr. Tony Ingram has now resigned at Canadian Pacific. Mr. Ackman now has a majority of the Board at Canadian Pacific. A cynic would suspect that the Board members elected on the slate presented by Pershing Square Capital are not desirous of dissenting Points of View. I think from this point forward the success or failure of Canadian Pacific will fall squarely on Mr. Ackman’s shoulders. It would not surprise me to see the remaining Director’s from last year also resign.
This should be interesting to watch…the on going machinations with respect to putting the right people in place will hopefully be over soon. I guess that’s all part of big business… it takes THIS long to affect any change. E Hunter Harrson is supposed to get to work beginning sometime next week…
Something must be really getting rotten in Denmark for Tony Ingram to back out! Personally I smell Pershing Square looting the cash box and calling it enhanced shareholder value - a favorite tactic for hedge funds in dealing with their takeovers.
I thought Ingram was one of Ackman’s directors.
Here in Wichita we are watching the aftermath of a similar situation in which a financial institution, went into a business, and made changes based on their financial interests (outsourcing to Mexico-in part?) . I know it is not a railroad but the situations seem to have similarities.
Goldman-Sachs has lost a bunch of money (or so the story seems to be told), and Hawker-Beechcraft is a shambles trying to work its way back from bankruptcy. I sure hope that a similar scenario does not work itself out with Pershing Square and CPR.
It certainly will be a scenario to watch as it works its way out. Whatever the outcome is, you can bet it will eventually change the North American rail landscape. [2c]
Tony Ingram was one of the last two members to join the board under John Clegghorn’s and Fred Green’s tenure, along with Ed Harris.
A paragraph from a much longer CTV News story summarizing the day at the Toronto Stock Exchange:
Canadian Pacific Railway (TSX:CP) says Tony Ingram has resigned as a director, the third departure from the CP board since the Calgary-based company’s annual meeting in May. As a result of the departures and the addition of Hunter Harrison as a director and chief executive officer of the company, the nominees put forward by Pershing Square have a majority on the 14-member board of directors. CP stock declined 84 cents to $74.92.
Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/tsx-declines-as-oil-prices-slide-amid-weak-june-jobs-
I’m not at all certain to what degree Canadian law might enable their government to protect one of the major corporations from a “load it up with debt, get the cash out, then run” style corporate raider. Mr. Ingram’s departure might signal he believes that is coming, but leaving retirement to participate in such a scheme does not strike me as Mr. Hunter’s style. It is going to be interesting to watch!
Do you know something we don’t – such as where Pershing Square has done this before? Please share.
Here is what Wiki has to say about Pershing and Ackerman and it is NOT GOOD. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Ackman when 2 of the 4 companies you have BOUGHT into have gone BELLY UP it kinda means your a Corparate RAIDER of the Worst KIND. Suck them Dry and MOVE ON. Where did this guy learn his ethics or did they not teach him any. If I was an Employee of the CP system I WOULD BE SCARED TO DEATH RIGHT NOW.
As I was going to bed last night it struck Mr. Ingram’s timing is really peculiar. If he didn’t agree with the rest of the board about the decision to hire EHH, why didn’t he resign last Friday, when EHH came aboard? And what could have happened in the last week that was so shocking he felt it necessary to leave? And it wasn’t even a full work week. Employees got Monday off because Canada Day was last Sunday. I have been wracking my brain trying to recall any event in the last week that would have precipitated such a decision. I am at a loss.
And I have to say I agree with Dakguy201"s logic. EHH seems like he is not the type to participate in some kind of financial stunt.
Bruce
Dakguy201:wrote:
“…but leaving retirement to participate in such a scheme does not strike me as Mr. Hunter’s style…”
Bruce (AgentKid) wrote,(in part):
“…As I was going to bed last night it struck Mr. Ingram’s timing is really peculiar. If he didn’t agree with the rest of the board about the decision to hire EHH, why didn’t he resign last Friday, when EHH came aboard?..”
Not being privy to what kind of contract Mr. Ingram had with CPR, it would be hard pressed to understand why he left as he did.
In many cases Members in executive position, and in some cases corporate board members may have in place a negotiated termination clause; (That Golden Parachute). Quite possibly, Mr. Ingram and Mr. Harrison may have decide that they could (or would not) be able to work together, and Mr. Ingram saw it might be wise to ‘bail out’, utilizing that ‘golden parachute’; Making that decision while he still had that option and before it was possibly lost, and he would be just pushed out, with nothing(?) Just a thought and possibly speculation, on my part.[X-)]
It will be interesting to see how long Bill Ackman (Pershing Square) holds on to his investment in CP when he finds out how long it will take EHH to effect a turnaround.
Another factor to consider would be how long EHH will stick around if Ackman starts making suggestions similar to those put up by The Children’s Fund in their bid to rob CSX.
From what I have read about Ackman, he seems to want to improve the performance of the companies he invest in, but his record is spotty. JC Penny is one of the companies that has not fared well. Ackman’s choice for CEO was formerly head of Apple’s retail operation and together they made a dramatic change in pricing strategy for JCP. It hasn’t worked.
This leads me to wonder if Ackman necessarily makes the wisest choices for people to run his companies, but in the case of CP, I think Harrison is a good choice. Whatever one might think of his management style, he clearly knows how railroads work and how to make them work better. The question is how long will it take for him to get a significant improvement in CP’s numbers. I don’t think he is going to find low hanging fruit such as he found at CN where he could send 300 locomotives back to leasing companies.
Regardless of various surprises coming for C.P.R. rumours out of Calgary something is going on, employees won’t comment (or probably don’t know) but the future of the railway will bring some drastic changes, something that has not happened in this railway for many, many years, will be interesting to see what unfolds.
Apparently, BaltACD does!
From TRAINS Newswire of this daye July 10,2012:
[snipped] "…[Tony]Ingram joined the CP board in December 2011. He has 38 years of rail experience at two Class I railroads, most recently as the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at CSX Transportation from 2004 to 2009. Before CSX, Ingram spent 33 years at Norfolk Southern…" [snip]
Then there were these: