(Bloomberg) -- Activist investor Mantle Ridge LP has nominated enough directors to replace the entire board at Air Products & Chemicals Inc. ahead of a shareholder vote.
The investor put forward nine candidates to the nine-person board of Air Products, according to a preliminary proxy statement on Tuesday.
Mantle Ridge said it is also open to considering alternative nominees as well as incumbent directors who want to stay on the board.
The nomination came after Air Products refreshed its board Monday. The company named industrials executives Bob Patel and Alfred Stern as candidates for the 2025 board election while two existing members won’t seek re-election.
An official date hasn’t been set for the meeting, which usually occurs in January.
Air Product said in a statement Tuesday that it had received Mantle Ridge’s nomination notice and will present its formal recommendation in a separate proxy statement “in due course.”
Another activist firm, DE Shaw & Co., is an investor in Air Products but isn’t nominating directors, Bloomberg News previously reported. A representative for DE Shaw declined to comment.
The Mantle Ridge slate includes Paul Hilal, the founder of the investment fund, former utility executive Andrew Evans and former Linde Plc executive Dennis Reilley.
The activist investor said it would help with the CEO search process to replace its current chief if elected to the board and believes the board should interview candidates including Eduardo Menezes, who was previously touted as a Mantle Ridge board nominee.
(Updates with statements in sixth and seventh paragraphs.)
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