Barington Capital Group
NEW YORK: Activist investor Barington Capital Group has built a stake in Matthews International Corp and argues the company needs to refresh its board, cut costs and consider selling its packaging business once it can be fixed up.
Barington chief executive officer James Mitarotonda said that the mini-conglomerate is undervalued after years of mismanagement and underperformance relative to its peers.
“We believe the Matthews board must be refreshed to ensure value creation is achieved for shareholders,” Mitarotonda said in a presentation at the Bloomberg Activism Forum in New York.
“Three of the company’s 10 directors are insiders, while six have served on the board for more than a decade and have overseen significant shareholder destruction,” he said.
A representative for Pittsburgh-based Matthews didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Matthews has three business segments with few synergies among them.
Mitarotonda said he believes its memorialisation business, which includes making caskets, is a “cash cow” and is better positioned than its competitors because of its cremation-related products and services.
He said the Matthews industrial technologies division, which supplies batteries to companies like Tesla Inc, is also poised for high growth.
Mitarotonda contends that the company’s packaging business, SGK, is a “turnaround story” and Matthews should explore selling it once it can be fixed up. — Bloomberg
