More Activists Converge on Brinks

An activist hedge fund manager on Friday stepped up its five-year effort to effect share improvement change at Brinks’ Co. by launching a proxy contest to put four candidates on the Richmond, Va.-based armored car transport company’s board.
Clay Lifflander, portfolio manager at MMI Investments LP of New York, wrote in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that the hedge fund is seeking to install director candidates because he believes the armored car company lacks industry experience on its board.
“We believe the director slate we’ve nominated is well qualified, with a breadth and depth of business experience to maximize value for all Brink’s stockholders,” Lifflander wrote. “We are not seeking control of the board. We simply believe that the board as currently composed has demonstrated that it lacks the security industry perspective, strategic alternatives acumen and stockholder representation necessary to protect and maximize the value of Brink’s stockholders’ investment.”
MMI Investments, which has an 8.4% Brinks stake, is seeking to nominate John Dyson, the chairman of MCM Capital Management; Peter Michel, former chief executive of Brink's residential security monitoring unit; Robert Strang, the CEO of Investigative Management Group; and Exide Technologies director Carroll Wetzel.
“Our nominees fill major gaps in the experience and skill set of the current directors, particularly as the board has limited direct Wall Street experience and no expertise in the security industry, other than chairman, CEO & president Michael Dan,” he added.
MMI Investments has been engaging Brink’s since 2003 and has lately pushed for a sale of the company. In 2005 the hedge fund began publicly agitating for Brink’s to sell its marginally profitable BAX Global subsidiary, an international heavy freight and logistics operator, which was subsequently sold for roughly $1.1 billion. — Ron Orol

Ron Orol is a Washington-based reporter for The Deal and author of Extreme Value Hedging: How Activist Hedge Fund Managers Are Taking on the World.