(Bloomberg) -- Air Products and Chemicals Inc. named two new board members ahead of its shareholder meeting in a potentially defensive move against pressure from two activist investors.
The company named industrials executives Bob Patel and Alfred Stern as candidates for the 2025 board election, according to a statement Monday. Two existing board members — David Ho and Matthew Paull — will not seek re-election.
Air Products is set to face off with two activist investors, Mantle Ridge LP and DE Shaw & Co, at its upcoming shareholder meeting, which typically happens in January. The investors have asked the company to make changes including reviewing its capital investment, refreshing its board and communicating a CEO succession plan, according to their letters.
The official date of the vote hasn’t been set.
Patel is the former chief executive officer of chemicals companies W.R. Grace and LyondellBasell Industries NV while Stern is the chairman of OMV AG, an Austria-based energy refiner.
“We welcome their extensive business experience and proven leadership as Air Products delivers on its growth strategy of optimizing and growing its core industrial gases business while advancing the energy transition through clean hydrogen,” Air Products Chief Executive Officer Seifi Ghasemi said in a statement.
The Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania-based company announced in August a search for a new president ad is expected to identify one in the first half of its 2025 fiscal year, a presentation showed.
Mantle Ridge, run by Paul Hilal, could nominate directors including former Linde Plc executives Dennis Reilley and Eduardo Menezes as challengers to the Air Products board, according to people familiar with the matter. DE Shaw will not put forward its own directors, they added.
“While Mr. Patel has a solid track record running commodity and specialty chemical businesses, on a head-to-head basis vs. Mantle Ridge’s reported nominees of Dennis Reilley, Eduardo Menezes running an industrial gas company, we think investor preference is more aligned with Mr. Reilley/Mr. Menezes,” Barclays research analyst Michael Leithead wrote on Monday.
Representatives for Mantle Ridge and DE Shaw didn’t immediately provide a comment.
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