DuPont CEO: Pleased With The Outcome Of The Proxy Vote, Will Continue To Engage With Trian

The results of the much awaited proxy vote between E I Du Pont De Nemours And Co DD and hedge fund Trian Partenrs are out and it seems shareholders chose to reaffirm their faith on DuPont’s CEO Ellen Kullman by giving her the majority rather than activist investor Nelson Peltz.

Kullman was on CNBC after the proxy vote to discuss about her enegagement with Trian Partners and whether she plans to go forward with any of their recommendations.

Pleased With The Outcome

“We have spend a lot of time with our shareholders over the last few months and days and we have received a lot of good feedback,” Kullman said. “And we were very encouraged by what they said, but in these kind of situations you never know and so we are pleased with the outcome and I think it’s been a really good opportunity for us to engage with our shareholders and understand how they think.”

Nelson Peltz

Kullman was asked what her engagement with Trian Partners founder Nelson Peltz has been like. She replied, “We engaged with Trian as we have engaged with all of our shareholders, very openly telling our story and understanding where they are coming from.”

She continued, “We will continue to engage with them in a very constructive way, we will continue to focus on delivering value for our shareholders. I mean, it’s hard for us to predict the future, but I think that the focus of all of us is on the creation [of] shareholder value and [the] stronger company going forward.”

Further Spin Offs?

On whether she plans to break off DuPont further into separate companies as suggested by Peltz, Kullman said, “We have really focussed on their 4 white papers in which they have engaged with the board in a 4 way split up, a 3 way split up and now a 2 way split up….as we look at it today that would be very destructive for the company.”