Activist hedge fund Macellum Advisors, which owns about a 5 percent stake in Kohl’s Corp., sent a letter to the retailer’s board on Tuesday urging Kohl’s to publicly commit to carrying out a “robust” process to review strategic alternatives and form a special committee of independent directors to oversee the review.
The firm also wants a Macellum representative to join Kohl’s board and lead the special committee.
“We feel the best risk-adjusted path forward for shareholders right now is a credible and open process to evaluate a full sale of the Company at an attractive premium,” Macellum Managing Partner Jonathan Duskin wrote in the letter. “Candidly, we do not have faith in the current Board to run this process on its own, nor do we believe the Board is capable of objectively evaluating possible bids relative to its historically overly optimistic assessments of management’s standalone plans,”
The letter came the day after Acacia Research, backed by activist investment firm Starboard Value, confirmed an all-cash offer to buy Kohl’s for $64 a share, or roughly $9 billion, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Sycamore Partners is also pursuing the retail chain.
