(Reuters) -Activist investor Engine Capital has urged medical equipment maker Avantor to refresh its board with new directors, a letter on Monday showed. Shares of Avantor rose 10.4% in premarketing trading. Engine Capital owns about 3% of the outstanding shares of Avantor. The activist investor highlighted the company’s challenges over the last five years, including […]
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Activist investor Engine Capital urges Avantor to refresh board with new directors
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(Reuters) -Activist investor Engine Capital has urged medical equipment maker Avantor to refresh its board with new directors, a letter on Monday showed.
Shares of Avantor rose 10.4% in premarketing trading.
Engine Capital owns about 3% of the outstanding shares of Avantor.
The activist investor highlighted the company’s challenges over the last five years, including repeated cuts to the company’s financial forecasts and consistent underperformance versus investor expectations, according to the letter.
“We believe the board is responsible for Avantor’s underperformance and has, in our opinion, failed to adequately oversee the company’s operations, management, capital allocation and succession planning,” Engine Capital said in the letter.
Avantor did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
(Reporting by Kamal Choudhury in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore and Leroy Leo)