Nelson Peltz Explains Why Jeffrey Sonnenfeld Is Wrong In His Analysis On Trian Partners

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Management expert and professor at Yale School of Management, recently wrote an op-ed in the Wall-Street Journal arguing that in the past several years index funds have outperformed activist hedge funds.

Sonnenfeld was particularly critical of Trian Fund Management founder Nelson Peltz. He wrote, "Nelson Peltz's Trian Fund Management and its activist assaults on the Bank of New York, PepsiCo and DuPont are an interesting case in point. Trian delivered only an 8.8% return in 2014, nearly five percentage points below the S&P 500. In 2012 Trian was up a scant 0.9% while the S&P 500 was up 15.9%. Clearly, this undermines Mr. Peltz's argument that DuPont's board needs Trian and Mr. Peltz to drive better returns."

Peltz was recently on CNBC to argue why Sonnenfeld is wrong about Trian Partners returns and fight against E I Du Pont De Nemours And Co DD.

The Real Numbers

"I don't mind anybody coming after me as long as they come after me with facts," Peltzsaid. "He is a professor, I assume he is telling his students to do good work. [This] work was, is just a bit faulty, I mean he said that the, he mentioned our results for 2012 and 2014 , he sort of missed 2013 when we were up 40 percent net."

"He said our returns in 2014 was a number which is far less than the 11 percent which is what we achieved net [and the reason is that] since inception we are up net a 137 percent [BVS…] by 3,400 basis."

Trying To ‘Characterize'

He continued, "He also shared a couple of other things that are inaccurate, he said that and this really is amazing, he said that DuPont invited [Ed Gordon] on the board. Now, professor should do a little bit more digging and a little less [bidding] okay? If you read our proxy statement and their proxy statement, these were one of the few things that both parties agreed to."

"We both agreed that Ed asked for board seats in 2014 several times and was turned down. In fact I was a compromise candidate put [forward] and they are trying to characterize that as me being stubborn and insisting that it's me and only me," Peltz concluded.