Nelson Peltz's P&G Board Seat Bid Came Up Less Than 1% Short

(Bloomberg) -- Trian Fund Management’s Nelson Peltz came within 6.2 million votes of being elected to the board of Procter & Gamble Co., losing by less than 1 percent to former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, according to a preliminary vote count released by the company Monday.

While a little more than 6 million votes may seem like a lot, P&G has about 2.55 billion shares outstanding, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The billionaire investor contends that he deserves a seat on the board regardless of the outcome of the vote.

Peltz received 972,999,075 votes for his election to the board while Zedillo, whose seat Peltz was targeting, received 979,150,492, according to the preliminary results released in a regulatory filing on Monday. P&G said total votes cast by its shareholders amounted to about 75 percent of eligible voters.

Peltz hasn’t conceded losing the proxy battle. A final tally by an independent inspector could take weeks, perhaps months.

“Trian continues to believe that the election is too close to call,” the firm said in a statement. “Regardless of the final voting results, shareholders have sent a strong message to P&G’s board and management: a continuation of the past decade’s underperformance is simply unacceptable.”

P&G declined to comment.

Peltz previously said that, if he won, he would propose creating a new board seat and appointing Zedillo to it.

To contact the reporter on this story: Scott Deveau in New York at sdeveau2@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elizabeth Fournier at efournier5@bloomberg.net, Michael Hytha