Target CEO continues to seek shareholder support for company's board

By Lisa Kerner

Charlotte, N.C., May 19 - Target Corp. chairman, president and chief executive officer Gregg Steinhafel, once again speaking on behalf of the company's board of directors, urged shareholders to support Target's nominees at the annual meeting on May 28.

Steinhafel believes dissident shareholder Pershing Square Capital Management, LP realizes its "financial engineering" lacks support and is now focusing on other arguments, according to a letter to Target shareholders on Tuesday.

"We believe that the facts clearly speak for themselves regarding the relative merits of the director candidates on the respective slates, notwithstanding Pershing Square's attempt to find 'holes' in the Target board," Steinhafel said.

The Nominees for Shareholder Choice, a group led by Pershing Square, sent a booklet to Target shareholders on Monday comparing its director nominees to the nominees put forth by Target.

Pershing Square also urged Target shareholders to vote against Target's proposal to "determine" that its size is 12 and for the election of Jim Donald, Richard Vague, Michael Ashner, Ron Gilson and Bill Ackman.

Proxy firms weight in

Target also announced on Tuesday that Glass, Lewis & Co. recommended that the company's shareholders vote for all four of Target's nominees: Mary N. Dillon, Richard M. Kovacevich, George W. Tamke and Solomon D. Trujillo.

The proxy advisory firm also recommended that shareholders vote for the proposal to set the size of the board at 12 members.

RiskMetrics Group/ISS recommended that Target shareholders vote Pershing Square's gold proxy card, reject Target's proposal to reduce the board to 12 members and elect Ackman and Donald, Pershing Square announced, also on Tuesday.

According to Pershing Square, RiskMetrics was critical of the Target board's resistance to change.

As previously reported, Proxy Governance, Inc. recommended that Target shareholders vote on Pershing Square's proxy card to elect Donald and Ashner to the board of directors.

Another proxy advisory firm, Egan-Jones, recommended that Target shareholders withhold votes from two of Target's nominees, Kovacevich and Tamke.

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