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NEW YORK (Reuters) - The California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) said it will vote for activist investment firm Mantle Ridge's four director candidates to the board of Air Products and Chemicals, in the year's first major boardroom battle.
The pension fund, which oversees $352.5 billion in assets, said on its website that it will back all four dissident candidates and withhold votes for four of Air Products' board members, including chief executive Seifi Ghasemi and lead director Edward Monser at the Jan. 23 annual meeting.
It did not provide any explanation for its decision.
Mantle Ridge wants industrial gases company Air Products to lay out a succession plan for its octogenarian CEO, who has served at the helm for a decade, allocate its capital differently and scale back on risky projects.
Mantle Ridge has argued that its director nominees should be elected to achieve these objectives. The company disagrees and has warned that the election of any Mantle Ridge candidate to the nine-member board could cause confusion about the direction and leadership of the company.
The California pension fund owned a 0.12% stake in the company at the end of September according to LSEG data, making it Air Products' 100th largest investor. By contrast, Air Products' biggest investor, The Vanguard Group, owned a 9.52% stake at the end of September.
Few investors signal publicly how they plan to vote in corporate elections.
Three U.S. proxy advisory firms -- Institutional Shareholder Services, Glass Lewis and Egan-Jones -- issued voting recommendations in the past few days and largely urged investors to elect the Mantle Ridge candidates. The company said it disagreed with the firms' opinions.
On Tuesday, Air Products said it will report stronger than previously forecast earnings for its fiscal first quarter 2025.
The company said preliminary fiscal 2025 first quarter adjusted earnings per share will be $2.86, topping the company's previous guidance of $2.75 to $2.85. Results are scheduled for release on Feb. 6.
(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Saad Sayeed)