Barington, Clinton Group back Dillard's director nominees

By Lisa Kerner

Charlotte, N.C., May 20 - Barington Capital Group, LP and Clinton Group, Inc. voted their shares as planned in favor of Dillard's, Inc.'s director nominees at the annual meeting on Saturday.

Barington and Clinton are no longer acting as a group, according to separate schedule 13D filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

According to the filings, Barington reduced its stake in Dillard's to 2.79%, and Clinton now owns 2.2% of the Little Rock, Ark.-based fashion apparel and home furnishings retailer.

Dillard's and the shareholders reached an agreement in April to settle a potential proxy contest.

Barington and Clinton agreed to cease their efforts to elect a slate of four nominees and to vote for the election of the company's nominees, while Dillard's agreed to nominate for the slate of class A directors:

• James A. Haslam III, chief executive officer of Pilot Travel Centers LLC;

• R. Brad Martin, former chairman and CEO of Saks Inc.;

• Frank R. Mori, co-CEO and president of Takihyo Inc., former president and CEO of Anne Klein, Inc. and former CEO and founding partner of Donna Karan International; and

• Nick White, president and CEO of White & Associates and former executive vice president and general manager of the Supercenter division of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

Barington and its affiliates had intended to nominate White as well as James A. Mitarotonda, chairman, president and CEO of Barington Capital Group; Charles M. Elson, director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware; and Eric S. Salus, former senior executive at Federated Department Stores.

Dillard's had said it planned to close underperforming stores in order to "rationalize real estate" as soon as possible, cut unnecessary costs and subject all future commitments for new stores to strict return-on-capital requirements.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.