Air Products Wins Airgas Proxy Fight

Air Products & Chemicals’ hostile $65.50-per-share bid to take over industrial gas distributor Airgas gained momentum last week at Airgas’ annual meeting of shareholders. The three directors that Air Products nominated to Airgas’ board were elected. Three Airgas directors, including founder, Chairman, and CEO Peter McCausland, were ousted. In addition, Airgas shareholders approved Air Products’ proposal to push up the date of the next shareholder meeting from June—as Airgas had planned—to January. Airgas, however, contends that the proposal didn’t pass because it wasn’t approved by more than 67% of Airgas shareholders. Airgas has so far rejected all of Air Product’s offers.