Carl C. Icahn today delivered
the following open letter to shareholders of Transocean Ltd.
Dear Fellow Transocean RIG Shareholders:
Today, after facing strong shareholder dissent, and in what
appears to be a last ditch effort to preserve his reelection,
Mike Talbert has promised shareholders that if elected, he will
shortly resign. We find it to be utterly absurd that a Chairman
facing the prospect of losing his directorship would be so
brazen as to ask shareholders to return him as Chairman so that
he and the Board can then pick his successor. In today's press
release, Mr. Newman stated that Talbert has “...played a very
important role in making Transocean the company it is today.”
Finally, we agree on something - and that is exactly why we are
seeking to replace Talbert. As Mr. Newman was quoted in the
Wall Street Journal today: “There's no question the company has
underperformed.” We urge all shareholders to vote against
Talbert, Sprague and Cason and replace them with directors who
are willing to make shareholders their top priority.
Additionally, we were gratified to learn that Ethos Foundation,
a Swiss proxy advisory firm, has recommended that institutional
investors vote in favor of electing all three Icahn nominees to
the Board of Transocean Ltd. At this point, we are pleased that
ISS, Glass Lewis and Ethos have all recommended against the
Chairman of the Board, Mike Talbert, recognizing that the
Company has underperformed and someone must be held accountable.
As ISS stated: “Shareholders may wish to hold Michael Talbert,
a longtime incumbent, responsible for the long term performance
and outcome of strategic choices the company has made.” We
fully agree.
In 2005, Ultra-Deepwater drillship unit day-rates were below
$200,000 per day, and Transocean shares averaged $54.16 for the
year. Today, day-rates have rocketed up to over $600,000 per day
but Transocean shares are unchanged. Material improvements in
market conditions have not translated into returns for
Transocean shareholders. We believe that directors Talbert,
Sprague and Cason have proven themselves incapable of delivering
returns, and therefore, they should be replaced. Shareholders at
last have a say in the future of the Company by replacing these
directors. We have nominated directors who we believe are
capable and who will work to meaningfully enhance shareholder
value.
In our view, this is truly an astounding situation because this
board is not simply responsible for a single poor decision, but
instead the Board has built a consistently disappointing track
record of poor decisions leading to poor shareholders returns.
Yet, instead of apologizing to shareholders for this poor
performance and explaining how the future will employ strategies
different than the past, in our opinion, they are essentially
telling shareholders “You should be thanking us, and are lucky
to have a “world class” board”. While we are more than willing
to work with other independent board members to have a
comprehensive debate to formulate a consensus plan to move
forward to create value, there is no point debating that actions
taken by this Board in the past have contributed to terrible
shareholder returns. Their decisions and historical shareholder
returns are a matter of public record and are simply facts. It
is time for change.
WE URGE SHAREHOLDERS TO VOTE AT THE 2013 TRANSOCEAN ANNUAL
GENERAL MEETING FOR THE ICAHN PROPOSAL TO INCREASE THE DIVIDEND
AT TRANSOCEAN TO $4.00 PER SHARE AND FOR THE ICAHN PROPOSAL TO
ELECT JOSE MARIA ALAPONT, JOHN J. LIPINSKI AND SAMUEL MERKSAMER
TO THE TRANSOCEAN BOARD OF DIRECTORS.
Very truly yours,
Carl C. Icahn
Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Comments
Loading...
Benzinga simplifies the market for smarter investing
Trade confidently with insights and alerts from analyst ratings, free reports and breaking news that affects the stocks you care about.
Join Now: Free!
Already a member?Sign in