Target wins proxy fight with Ackman, Pershing Square - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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In a preliminary tally of voting, more than 70 percenr of the shares that were cast were votefd in favor ofthe company’z proposed slate of directors while also voting to keep the size of the board the same by the same votinhg margin. Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) urged its shareholders to vote for a proposalo to set the size of the board at 12 and to vote forthe company’ss nominees — Mary Dillon, Richard Kovacevich, George Tamkew and Solomon Trujillo. Dillon is executive vice president and global chief marketing officerof McDonald’s Corp.; Kovacevicg is chairman of Wells Fargo & Co.; Tamke is a partner at private investment firm Clayton Dubiliert & Rice Inc.
, and Trujillo is CEO of Telstra Hedge fund manager William Ackman is the founde r and managing principal of , New York Pershing Square owns 7.8 percent of Target’s commoh shares, according to the Target prox y statement. Pershing Square proposed alternativsdirector nominees, but Target executives urged shareholders not to returb any proxy card sent by Pershingf Square. Ackman was tryiny to gain a seat for himseldfon Target’s board along with four others: former Winthroop Realty Trust CEO Michael Ashner, forme r Starbucks CEO Jim Donald, Juniper Financial co-foundere Richard Vague and corporate finance and governancre expert Ronald Gilson.
calling his group The Nomineesw forShareholder Choice, urged Target shareholdersw to vote against the proposal to reduce the size of the Targetg board. His group said a vote against the proposal wouldr help ensure that at least one of the Nomineexs for Shareholder Choiceis elected. The shareholders meeting was held at a new Targert Store being completed at 1250 West Sunsety Drivein Waukesha. Target executives said the site allowesd the company to showcase its latestt general merchandisestore design. The store is scheduledx to openin July.
Target executive s said they have met since 2007 with Ackman to discuss hisideaz and, said they were disappointed that Pershing Squarw has decided to pursue what Target managementr called a costly and disruptive proxyy contest. The company, in followed Ackman’s earlier suggestion to sell Target’s credit card The company completed a transactio n in May withJPMorgan Chase, in whichu Target sold slightly less than half its receivables for cash proceedsz of about $3.6 billion dollars. Ackman in May 2008 presentefd the first in a series of proposald involvingrestructuring Target’s real estatew around the theme of a REIT.
Target’s board concluded that the REITproposal “was not in the best interesf of our shareholders” because it wouldn’t create much Target executives said. On May 20, Targegt reported net earningsof $522 or 69 cents per share, for the first quarterf ended May 2, 2009, compared with $602 million , or 74 a year earlier. Retaipl sales increased 0.4 percent to $14.4 billion from $14.33 billion in 2008, due to new store expansion that partially offse t bya 3.7 percent declin e in comparable-store sales. Target Corp. operates a credit card segmenrand 1,698 Target stores in 49 states.