(Bloomberg) -- Activist investor Irenic Capital Management has built a position in Barnes Group Inc. and is pushing for the manufacturer to make board changes and explore a strategic review, including a sale of all or part of the company, according to people familiar with the matter. 

Irenic, taking its first position since it was founded by alums of larger activist funds, has told management it believes the company could fetch as much as $60 per share in a sale, said the people, who asked to not be identified because the matter isn’t public. 

That’s a substantial premium to its current share price. The stock rose 3.4% to $29.75 at 9:32 a.m. in New York trading Friday, giving the company a market value of about $1.5 billion. 

Irenic believes that Barnes’ aerospace unit alone is worth more than its current market value, the people said. It has raised concerns about the company’s capital allocation, operating performance, executive compensation and failure to hit financial targets, they added. 

Irenic has also proposed potential directors to the Barnes board, including industry executives with relevant experience that could sit on a review committee, the people said. 

The size of Irenic’s stake couldn’t be determined. 

Representatives for Irenic and Barnes declined to comment.

Barnes manufactures and engineers advanced technologies for the medical, packaging and aerospace industries, according to its website. 

In July, the company appointed Thomas Hook as its new president and chief executive officer, replacing Patrick Dempsey, who had been on a leave of absence since March. 

Hook said on a conference call in July that he expected the Ukraine war and a weakness in the auto market to continue to weigh on the company. As a result, Barnes lowered its sales and earnings guidance for the rest of 2022. 

First target

Barnes is the first public company to be targeted by Irenic, which was founded last year by Adam Katz, a former executive at Elliott Investment Management, and Andy Dodge, formerly of Indaba Capital Management. The activist fund is focused on agitating for changes at small to mid-cap companies, and has the financial backing of the Fribourg family, owners of Continental Grain Co. 

The firm has raised about $500 million across various funds, the people said. 

While at Elliott, Katz worked on several of its high-profile activist campaigns, including at Alcoa Corp., Arconic Corp. and Howmet Aerospace Inc. Dodge, who was a partner at Indaba, led the firm’s investments in ClubCorp Holdings Inc. and Life Time Fitness. 

(Updates trading in third paragraph.)

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