(Reuters) – Ontario Teachers’ Pension Fund, a large Canadian Pacific Railway shareholder, will vote for William Ackman‘s slate of directors instead of the incumbent board, strengthening the activist investor’s hand ahead of next week’s proxy showdown.
Teachers said on Monday it would not vote for CP’s slate of proposed directors because the company’s performance has lagged its peers during Fred Green‘s tenure as chief executive.
In a statement posted on its website, Teachers said a recent set of strong CP results had failed to convince it that CP was outperforming its peers and it believed “there is more risk” in maintaining the status quo.
“After reviewing the proxy materials for both management and the dissident, Teachers’ is voting the dissident proxy, requiring an ‘abstain’ vote on the management proxy,” the pension fund manager, one of Canada’s largest, said.
CP, Canada’s second biggest railroad, could not immediately be reached for comment.
A proxy battle between the railroad and Pershing Square Capital Management, a hedge fund that Ackman runs, will be decided at CP’s annual meeting in Calgary, Alberta on May 17.
Pershing is CP’s biggest shareholder with a 14.1 percent stake.
Teachers owns approximately 2.46 million shares in CP, or a stake of
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