Contrarian Corpus
activist full deck proxy fight
2022-03-08 · 90 pages

Huntsman Corporation HUN

N 4 Narrative
V 4 Visual
C 3 Craft
Original source ↗

The three reasons

  1. 1

    Huntsman failed all 2016 and 2018 Investor Day EBITDA and share-price promises

  2. 2

    Textile Effects acquisition destroyed $156M of EBITDA; 16 years to recover

  3. 3

    Huntsman has underperformed peers and the market across nearly every time period since IPO

Primary demands

  • Elect Starboard's independent director nominees to the Huntsman board
  • Hold management accountable for repeated failures to deliver on Investor Day promises
  • Refresh the board with directors who have relevant chemicals industry experience
  • End the practice of cherry-picking peer sets and time periods to obscure performance

KPIs cited

2017 Adjusted EBITDA vs. target
Actual $1,134M vs. $1,272M target — missed by 11%
Textile Effects Adjusted EBITDA at acquisition (2005)
$92M at 2006 purchase vs. $97M in 2021 — no value created in 16 years
Textile Effects EBITDA destruction
$156M cumulative decline from peak to 2011 trough ($92M to -$64M)
Textile Effects EBITDA promise
Peter Huntsman promised $150M within 2 years of 2006 acquisition; never achieved
2018 Investor Day share-price goal
Promised ~$60/share by 2020; all four value levers marked FAILED
Venator monetization promise
Promised to monetize remaining 53% stake for ~$1bn; failed
Organic Adjusted EBITDA CAGR promise
10% organic CAGR 2017-2020 pledged at 2018 Investor Day; missed
TSR Since-IPO
Huntsman 80% vs. Primary Peers 822%, S&P 500 417%, S&P Chemicals 411%
TSR 8-year underperformance vs. Primary Peers
-88 percentage points
EV/EBITDA multiple vs. diversified peers (2022E)
HUN 6.1x vs. Celanese 8.3x, Eastman 9.2x (per Deutsche Bank)

Pattern membership

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

Notable slides (10)

Notes

Supplemental/follow-up deck filed as DFAN14A on 2022-03-08, explicitly framed as companion to Starboard's 2022-02-28 investor presentation and as a rebuttal to Huntsman management's own investor presentation. Core rhetorical engine is the 'Claims vs. Reality' table and a repeated 'The Truth / Huntsman's Misleading Tactics' two-column motif that recurs as a closer every section. Heavy use of highlighted verbatim Peter Huntsman CEO quotes from 2006, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018 to expose broken promises. Table of contents implies 6+ numbered sections (Investor Day Promises, Capital Allocation / Textile Effects, Governance, Financial Underperformance, Share Price Underperformance, Starboard's Past Investments, plus an Appendix on peer sets). Visual template is a Starboard-standard institutional blue/red palette with underline-emphasis typography; dense but readable. Classification: proxy_fight phase because DFAN14A is additional soliciting material filed during an active proxy contest; primary material because it is Starboard's own argument, not management's rebuttal.