NEW YORK (Reuters) – Activist investor Daniel Loeb of hedge fund Third Point has called for the removal of Dow Chemical Co. Chief Executive Officer Andrew Liveris after the company’s agreement to merge with DuPont Co, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.
Loeb sent a private letter to Dow’s board on Saturday raising questions about the timing of the deal, the WSJ reported, without disclosing how it knew the contents of the letter.
A Dow Chemical representative was not immediately available for comment to Reuters. DuPont declined to comment.
Loeb, who supports the merger, questioned whether the deal was rushed to be completed before the expiration of a standstill agreement this weekend that had barred him from publicly speaking about Dow, the WSJ reported.
Directors on Dow’s board defended the deal and Liveris in interviews, the WSJ reported. Raymond Milchovich, one of the two directors Loeb nominated a year ago, told the WSJ: “Personally I think it’s almost laughable to say that anyone tried to engineer this date to the expiration of the standstill.”
“There was never any rushing on the part of management or the boards of either company to skip steps along the way,” Milchovich told the WSJ.
Liveris came under attack last year from Loeb, whose Third Point had acquired a 2 percent stake in Dow.
As reported by Business Insider