Nelson Peltz's Trian Reveals $690 Million Bet on Paint Maker PPG

(Bloomberg) -- Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund Management disclosed a new position in chemicals manufacturer PPG Industries Inc. valued at about $690 million.

Trian said Tuesday that it controls 7 million shares, about 2.9 percent of the paintmaker’s outstanding stock. After a regulatory filing disclosing that it had held a $269 million stake as of June 30, Trian said in an emailed statement that its current position was worth $690 million.

Pittsburgh-based PPG sank 10 percent Tuesday, the most in almost a decade, after saying rising expenses and soft demand from China squeezed third-quarter profit. The slump left PPG with a market value of $23.9 billion. The shares climbed 3.3 percent in premarket trading Wednesday to $101.78 after Trian’s investment was disclosed.

Trian said in August that it had taken a new position in a company that it didn’t identify on its quarterly investment filings after reaching an agreement with regulators to keep it confidential. The agreement, typical when a firm is still building a position, had expired, according to a filing Tuesday.

“PPG does not comment on the investments of specific shareholders,” spokesman Bryan Iams said in an emailed statement. “PPG is looking forward to maintaining a constructive dialogue with Trian.”

Other Investments

Two of Trian’s largest investments, General Electric Co. and Procter & Gamble CO., remain works in progress. Shares in GE, where Trian co-founder Ed Garden holds a board seat, have fallen by about half since Trian disclosed its position in October 2015, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

P&G has also fallen about 4 percent since Trian launched a proxy fight at the consumer goods giant in July 2017. Peltz, Trian’s co-founder, eventually won a seat on that company’s board. But P&G has continued to struggle amid competition and tighter ordering from traditional retailers.

Trian, shunning the term “activist investor,” prefers to be described as a “highly-engaged shareowner.” Most of its investments don’t result in a proxy fight. P&G was only its third proxy context since the firm was founded in 2005. Trian won two seats on the board of H.J. Heinz Co. in 2006 and kept them until 2013. It lost its other proxy fight -- at DuPont Co. -- in 2015, where it was seeking board representation.

Trian, started by Peltz, Garden and Peter May, has typically focused on consumer, industrial and financial companies, often targeting large conglomerates. It has more than $10 billion in assets under management.

To contact the reporters on this story: Scott Deveau in New York at sdeveau2@bloomberg.net;Jack Kaskey in Houston at jkaskey@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elizabeth Fournier at efournier5@bloomberg.net, ;Brendan Case at bcase4@bloomberg.net, Michael Hytha, Matthew Monks

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