US natural and organic food group Hain Celestial has appointed two directors under an agreement with financier Carl Icahn, who owns a major stake in the company.
Under the terms of the agreement announced yesterday (7 July), Hain has named Brett Icahn and David Schechter as directors.
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The company, therefore, has temporarily increased the number of seats on the board from ten to twelve.
In return, the Icahn Group has agreed to support Hain’s slate of director nominees.
“We are pleased to welcome Brett and David to our board of directors,” said Irwin Simon, chairman, CEO and president of Hain Celestial. “We look forward to their contributions and working with them to achieve our objectives.”
Activist investor Carl Icahn bought an almost 12% stake in Hain in May. Icahn said at the time that he thought Hain’s shares were “undervalued”.
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By GlobalDataHain also announced yesterday that it had secured a five-year US$400m credit facility.
CFO Ira Lamel said the facility would give Hain access to “acquisition financing”.
“Our new credit facility will provide Hain Celestial with access to capital for our next level of growth,” Lamel said.
Hain has struck three acquisitions in the past two months. This week, the company said it had bought US natural yoghurt business 3 Greek Gods for an undisclosed sum.
Last month, Hain bought UK food-to-go firm Churchill Food Products.
In May, Hain secured the acquisition of US snack business World Gourmet Marketing.
