Dan Loeb confirms he’s pushing Campbell family to sell company
Dan Loeb fi🐻nally revealed he’s looking for a new recipe for success at Campbell Soup.
The activist hedgie behind Third Point on Thursday announced in a regulatory filing a 5.7 percent stake in the soup maker — and that he is pushing for the company to put itself on꧃ the block.
Third Point began ladling Campbell stock into its portfolio in June, according to🅷 the filing — weeks after the company’s “disastrous fiscal third quarter” results and the 🔴sudden exit of Chief Executive Denise Morrison were revealed.
Campbell said in May that it was initiating a strategic review of the company. That review is expected to be comple꧙ted on Aug 30.
Third Point — as The Post reported exclusively in July — believes that review should result in the sale of the company.
“The only justif𒐪iable outcome of the strategic review is for [Campbell] to be sold to a stratꦅegic buyer,” Third Point said in its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The 💞hedge fund🍸 didn’t mince words when calling out the failings at the Camden, NJ, company.
Campbell has suffered from “years of abysmal oversight,” “dismal operat🍌ing performance,” and a “lack♉ of leadership,” the hedge fund said.
Keith McLoughlin has🎐 been serving as interim CEO while a se🐓arch for Morrison’s replacement continues.
“The current CEO vacuu🍌m reminds [us] of Ben Franklin’s resonant insight that ‘if you fail to plan, you are planning to f☂ail,’” the hedge fund wrote.
Even Third Point — known for its tough talk in activist situations — realizes that it has a difficult task ahead of it. Roughly 40 percent of Campbell’s stock is held by family m💞emb🌸ers, some of whom may be reluctant to sell.
But Third Point has at least one family member in its corner: George Strawbridge, who has a 2.8 percent stake in Campbell, has agreed to work with the activist, the filing said.
𒅌Strawbridge “strongly shares our views,” 💯Third Point said.
Campbell 💟acknowledged Third Point’s filing late Thursday and said it looks forward to “engaging with our shareholders on our strategic plan” on Aug 30.