Contrarian Corpus
activist letter proxy fight
2022-01-12 · 5 pages

Huntsman Corporation HUN

N 4 Narrative
V 2 Visual
C 2 Craft
Original source ↗

The three reasons

  1. 1

    Three consecutive Investor Days (2014, 2016, 2018) missed EBITDA targets by hundreds of millions

  2. 2

    IPO shareholders have underperformed chemical and S&P 500 indices by 330% and 337%

  3. 3

    Board's defensive actions (abridged nomination window, refused Universal Card) disenfranchise shareholders

Primary demands

  • Elect Starboard's four nominees (Gallogly, Lin, Schnabel, Smith) to the Board at the 2022 Annual Meeting
  • Adopt a Universal Proxy Card for the contested election
  • Reverse the abridged 10-day director nomination window
  • Refresh the Board to bring independent, accountable directors with chemicals/industrials experience
  • Hold management accountable for executing on stated EBITDA and share-price targets

KPIs cited

Adjusted EBITDA vs 2014 Investor Day target
Targeted $2.0B over 2-3 years; actually declined by over $350M
Adjusted EBITDA vs 2016 Investor Day target
Targeted $1.7B by year-end 2017; missed even with $125M one-time commodity price boon
Share price vs 2018 Investor Day target
Targeted ~$60/share by 2020 (10% EBITDA CAGR, +$27); stock declined into mid-$20s
Adjusted EBITDA 2018-2019
Declined by more than $300M before the pandemic
Total shareholder return vs chemical index since IPO
Underperformed by 330% from Feb 2005 IPO through Sep 27, 2021
Total shareholder return vs S&P 500 since IPO
Underperformed by 337% from Feb 2005 IPO through Sep 27, 2021
Director nomination window
Abridged from nearly a month to just 10 days via Jan 2, 2022 press release

Pattern membership

Where this document fits across the library's 12 rhetorical / structural patterns.

Notable slides (4)

Notes

Open letter from Jeffrey C. Smith to Chairman Peter Huntsman announcing nomination of four directors (James L. Gallogly, Sandra Beach Lin, Susan C. Schnabel, Jeffrey C. Smith) for the 2022 Annual Meeting. Strong rhetorical pattern: walks through three consecutive Investor Day misses (2014, 2016, 2018) to indict execution credibility, then pivots to governance grievances (abridged nomination window, refused Universal Proxy Card, defensive board reshuffle). Tone oscillates between collaborative ('share similar aspirations', 'open-minded about reaching a mutually agreeable solution') and adversarial ('disenfranchise shareholders', 'shareholder-unfriendly tendencies'). No charts; pages 4-5 are nominee bios with headshots. References Schedule 13D filed Sep 27, 2021. No explicit price target or sum-of-parts valuation in this letter.