Former Linde executives team up with Mantle Ridge in push for changes at Air Products

Linde

15/10/2024 13:00

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss
       NEW YORK, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Two former top executives
at Linde Plc  LIN.DE  will join activist investor Paul Hilal in
his bid to shake up management and the board at rival industrial
gas company Air Products and Chemicals  APD.N , people familiar
with the matter told Reuters.
    Dennis Reilley and Eduardo Menezes are teaming up with
Hilal's investment firm Mantle Ridge LP which has built a stake
of more than $1 billion in Air Products, said the people who are
prohibited from discussing the firm's strategy publicly.
    Reilley is a former chief executive and chairman at Praxair,
an industrial gases company that is now part of Linde, and
served on the boards at DuPont de Nemours  DD.N , CSX  CSX.O ,
Dow Chemical, HJ Heinz and Entergy  ETR.N .
    Menezes is a former executive vice president for Europe,
Middle East and Africa at Linde and also previously worked at
Praxair in senior roles. In his last position at Linde he was
responsible for operations in more than 40 countries which had
sales of more than $8 billion.
    Hilal is also working with other former Praxair and Linde
executives to push for changes at Air Products, the sources
said. These include succession planning for octogenarian chief
executive Seifi Ghasemi, restructuring the board, improving
capital allocation and overhauling the company's strategy,
people familiar with Hilal's strategy said.
    Air Products was not immediately available for comment.
    Hilal helped install Ghasemi as CEO in 2014 when he first
researched Air Products as a partner at Pershing Square Capital
Management. But a decade on Ghasemi at age 80 ranks among the
oldest CEOs at S&P 500 companies and has indicated he would like
to stay on. His contract is renewed yearly for the next four
years. 
    Hilal is eyeing Reilley to become Air Products' executive
chairman while Menezes might become chief executive officer, the
sources said.
    Since leaving Pershing Square to launch Mantle Ridge, Hilal
has invested in less than a handful of companies, including CSX,
Aramark  ARMK.N  and Dollar Tree  DLTR.O , and replaced the
chief executive officer at all of them. Hilal has previously
recruited executives from rival companies to join him in his
campaigns.
    Hedge fund D.E. Shaw is also pushing for changes at Air
Products and said last week the company needs to articulate a
clear succession plan, refresh its board and limit capital
expenditures.     

 (Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss
Editing by Chris Reese)
 ((svea.herbst@thomsonreuters.com; +617 233 2138; Reuters
Messaging: svea.herbst.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))