
Exclusive: Activist Ancora pushing for board shakeup at Forward Air, letter shows
BEVERLY HILLS, May 7(Reuters) - Activist investor Ancora Holdings wants to shake up the board at Forward Air (FWRD.O), opens new tab, saying three directors need to be removed after the freight forwarding company's stock price plunged.
In a letter to shareholders, seen by Reuters, Ancora urged investors to remove the board chairman George Mayes and two other directors at the company's annual meeting scheduled for June 11.
The Reuters Tariff Watch newsletter is your daily guide to the latest global trade and tariff news. Sign up here.
"We plan to send the Board a clear message that the status quo is unacceptable in light of the significant value that has been destroyed," the letter said.
Ancora, which owns roughly 3% of Forward Air, is running a so-called "withhold the vote" campaign to take advantage of the company's policy that requires a director to resign if they receive less than 50.1% support in a shareholder vote.
The firm is targeting Mayes and directors Javier Polit and Laurie Tucker, over their support for Forward Air's acquisition of Omni Logistics in January 2024 as well as "slow walking" a process to find a buyer for the company.
Forward Air, now valued at roughly $500 million, has seen its stock price tumble from a high of $121 in late 2021 to $16.75 on Tuesday. The company is scheduled to report first quarter earnings on Wednesday.
A representative for the company was not immediately available to comment.
Investors, including Ancora, have urged the company to run a strategic review and consider selling itself to a strategic buyer or a private equity firm. In January 2025 the company said it was proceeding with such a review.
While Ancora chose not to run a full blown proxy fight and nominate its own directors to give the company time and space to pursue a sale, it is now urging investors to vote against the three because the company has failed to offer any meaningful update on the process and the stock price has tumbled 56% in the last six months, the letter said.
"We have serious concerns about the ability of the targeted directors to oversee the company's strategic review in light of their shared history of poor decisions on transactions," Ancora wrote. The firm wants Forward Air to be taken private where it could repair its balance sheet issues, improve operations and serve customers and other stakeholders out of the public eye.
Last year Ancora ran a proxy fight at railroad company Norfolk Southern and won board seats. It recently secured board representation at logistics giant LKQ Corporation.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Reuters
10 minutes ago
- Reuters
Metsera rises as experimental weight-loss drug shows promise in small early-stage trial
June 9 (Reuters) - Shares of weight-loss drug developer Metsera (MTSR.O), opens new tab gained as much as 25% on Monday after the company's experimental drug helped patients lose weight in a small, early-stage trial, showing potential for a monthly dosing regime. The drug developer, which went public in January, is one of the many that are eyeing the lucrative market of weight-loss drugs that have been dominated by GLP-1 drugs from Novo Nordisk ( opens new tab and Eli Lilly (LLY.N), opens new tab. The drug, MET-233i, helped patients lose 8.4% of their weight, when adjusted for placebo, at 36 weeks. The drug belongs to a class of medicines which mimic the pancreatic hormone amylin that is co-secreted with insulin. It is being developed as a standalone treatment, and in combination with the company's other GLP-1 drug MET-097i. The two hormones combined suppress hunger, help control patients' blood glucose. Metsera's shares, which touched $35.19 in early trading, were up 5% at midday. The first wave of obesity drugs was based mainly on the gut hormone GLP-1, but drugmakers are looking for medicines that target other hormones or help preserve muscle while losing fat for their next generation of drugs. Data from Novo Nordisk's experimental drug CagriSema, which was touted to be the successor of its blockbuster obesity drug Wegovy, has so far fallen below investor expectations. Data from Metsera's 80-patient study showed that its drug has a half life of about 19 days, supporting once-a-month dosing. This compares to the five to seven days for Lilly's Zepbound and Novo's Wegovy that are taken weekly, said Evercore ISI analyst Umer Raffat. The so-called half life of a drug refers to the time it takes for the initial dose of the medicine to decrease by half in a patient's body. It helps determine how frequently a drug should be taken to achieve benefits. Drugmaker AstraZeneca (AZN.L), opens new tab is also testing an amylin-based obesity drug in early trials.


Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
US wholesale inventories in April revised higher
WASHINGTON, June 9 (Reuters) - U.S. wholesale inventories increased in April amid stockpiling of prescription medication in anticipation of tariffs from the Trump administration. Stocks at wholesalers rose 0.2% instead of being unchanged, as estimated last month, the Commerce Department's Census Bureau said on Monday. Economists polled by Reuters had expected last month's estimate would be unrevised. Inventories, a key part of gross domestic product, climbed 0.3% in March. They advanced 2.3% on a year-over-year basis in April. Wholesale stocks of prescription medication surged 1.3% in April. There were also increases in apparel, motor vehicle, groceries and professional equipment inventories. President Donald Trump has said he would impose tariffs on imports of pharmaceutical products that have long been spared from past trade disputes due to the potential for harm to patients. Apart from drugmakers, businesses front-loaded imports in the first quarter, seeking to avoid Trump's sweeping duties on foreign goods, resulting in a large trade deficit that subtracted a record 4.90 percentage points from GDP. The front-running faded in April, leading to a record decline in imports and the overall trade deficit. While the contraction in the deficit at face value suggests trade could significantly add to gross domestic product in the second quarter, economists say some of the boost could be offset by low inventories. Inventory accumulation increased at a rate of $163.0 billion in the first quarter. The economy contracted at a 0.2% annualized rate in the January-March period, the first GDP decline in three years. It grew at a 2.4% pace in the fourth quarter. Sales at wholesalers edged up 0.1% in April after jumping 0.8% in March. At April's sales pace it would take wholesalers 1.30 months to clear shelves, unchanged from March.


Reuters
3 hours ago
- Reuters
Brazil inflation estimated to have edged down in May
June 9 (Reuters) - Brazil's inflation is estimated to have edged down in May as a persistent rise in food and beverage prices took a break, a Reuters poll found. Food inflation has begun to cool due to a large supply of foodstuffs from a good crop and rising cattle farming, coupled with the commercial impact of a bird flu outbreak leading to a glut on the domestic market. Official data to be published on Tuesday will likely show inflation ran at a 0.33% monthly rate and 5.40% in the 12 months to May, according to median estimates of 19 economists polled June 4-9. This would mark a decline from April's 0.43% monthly rate and 5.53% for the 12-month reading, the fastest annual clip since February 2023. UBS analysts noted May's trajectory was driven by an energy price hike, while "(monthly) food inflation is likely to print close to zero, as it reaches its low season of May-August." "Fresh food may already show prices falling, contributing 4 basis points to the downside", the bank's economists added. Bi-weekly figures last month reflected price falls in categories like grains, fruits and vegetables as well as low increases in flour and milk. Also, chicken prices dropped around 7% since the start of the bird-flu event, Brazil's Agriculture minister said last week. Exporters redirected poultry products to domestic consumers after a slew of international bans. Still, the 12-month inflation gauge is set to come in for the 8th consecutive month above the government's target of 3% plus/minus 1.5 percentage points. Beyond food and energy trends, services have been a key factor behind Brazil's sticky inflation recently, with a resilient job market pushing up the sector's costs. However, core services inflation probably moderated to a 0.35% monthly rate in May from 0.61% in April, Barclays said in a report. This would support growing views the economy is slowing down, a process expected to become clearer in the second half of the year. The nascent deceleration is the result of a monetary tightening campaign that last month brought up Brazil's benchmark interest rate to 14.75%, a near-two decade high. The central bank is maintaining a data-driven approach for its June rate-setting meeting, without committing to a specific policy path, governor Gabriel Galipolo said on Saturday.