The activist investor Carl Icahn’s conflict with McDonald’s over its therapy of pigs ended with little fanfare on Thursday when Enrique Hernandez Jr., the fast-food chain’s chairman, introduced at its annual shareholder assembly that Mr. Icahn’s two nominees to the McDonald’s board acquired solely about 1 p.c of investor votes. All 12 of the corporate’s most well-liked administrators had been re-elected.
The outcomes are primarily based on preliminary tabulations, and will likely be filed with regulators throughout the subsequent 4 enterprise days, Mr. Hernandez mentioned. Mr. Icahn, who purchased a small stake in McDonald’s to push his proposal, was invited to talk on the assembly in help of his nominees, however declined two days in the past, Mr. Hernandez mentioned.
Mr. Icahn, a company raider who made his identify in bruising boardroom battles, had offered a softer picture in his marketing campaign at McDonald’s, which he introduced in February. Impressed by his vegetarian daughter, Mr. Icahn argued that McDonald’s had not lived as much as its 2012 pledge to section out the usage of so-called gestational crates, tiny stalls by which sows are housed whereas pregnant. McDonald’s mentioned Mr. Icahn’s calls for about the way in which the corporate sourced its pork had been unreasonable.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Icahn declined to remark.
Mr. Icahn’s marketing campaign mirrored a more recent pattern of activist traders taking over social causes. That motion acquired a high-profile jolt final 12 months, with the funding agency Engine No. 1’s board victory at Exxon Mobil over its local weather technique. However in contrast to Exxon, McDonald’s had usually been holding traders pleased when Mr. Icahn introduced his calls for.
The billionaire’s efforts confronted different obstacles. When he introduced his marketing campaign, Mr. Icahn owned solely about 200 shares in McDonald’s, which has a market capitalization of greater than $180 billion. And the difficulty that Mr. Icahn was specializing in, the usage of gestational crates, doesn’t have the identical widespread consideration as different causes promoted by socially acutely aware activist invstors, like local weather change and pay fairness.
Mr. Icahn has additionally nominated two candidates to the board of Kroger, the grocery chain, citing the usage of gestational crates. The corporate has not but held its annual shareholder assembly to vote on the proposal.
