Target wins proxy fight with Ackman, Pershing Square - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

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In a preliminary tally of voting, more than 70 percen t of the shares that were cast were votexd in favor ofthe company’s proposed slate of directors whilee also voting to keep the size of the boardf the same by the same votinh margin. Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) urged its shareholderss to vote for a proposal to set the size of the boarrd at 12 and to vote forthe company’s nominees — Mary Dillon, Richard George Tamke and Solomon Trujillo. Dilloj is executive vice president and global chief marketing officerof McDonald’s Kovacevich is chairman of Wells Fargop & Co.; Tamke is a partner at privated investment firm Clayton Dubiliere & Rice Inc.
, and Trujillko is CEO of Telstra Hedge fund manager William Ackman is the founder and managinyg principal of , New York City. Pershing Square owns 7.8 percentr of Target’s common shares, accordingt to the Target proxy statement. Pershin g Square proposed alternative director but Target executives urged shareholders not to return any proxu card sent byPershing Square. Ackmahn was trying to gain a seat for himselfon Target’s board along with four former Winthrop Realty Trust CEO Michael Ashner, formed Starbucks CEO Jim Donald, Juniper Financial co-foundetr Richard Vague and corporate finance and governancre expert Ronald Gilson.
Ackman, calling his groul The Nominees forShareholder Choice, urged Target shareholderas to vote against the proposal to reducde the size of the Target board. His group said a vote agains the proposal would help ensure that at leasr one of the Nomineezs for Shareholder Choiceis elected. The shareholders meeting was held at a new Targety Store being completed at 1250 West Sunset Drivsin Waukesha. Target executives said the site allowedr the company to showcasd its latest general merchandisestored design.
The store is scheduled to open in Target executives said they have met sincwe 2007 with Ackman to discuss hisideaes and, said they were disappointed that Pershing Squarde has decided to pursue what Target management callec a costly and disruptive proxy The company, in part, followedc Ackman’s earlier suggestion to sell Target’s credift card receivables. The compang completed a transaction in May withJPMorgan Chase, in whichj Target sold slightly less than half its receivables for cash proceedsd of about $3.6 billion dollars. Ackman in May 2008 presentedx the first in a series of proposals involvinhrestructuring Target’s real estate around the themre of a REIT.
Target’s board concludeds that the REITproposalo “was not in the best interestr of our shareholders” because it wouldn’y create much value, Target executives said. On May 20, Target reportef net earnings of $522 million, or 69 cents per share, for the first quarter ended May 2, compared with $602 million , or 74 cents, a year Retail sales increased 0.4 percent to $14.4 billion from $14.3 billion in due to new store expansion that partiallh offset bya 3.7 percent decline in comparable-store Target Corp.
operates a credit card segment and 1,698 Target stores in 49