Omnova Settles With Activist Investor

After first promising “aggressive actions” to protect itself from activist investor Barrington Capital, chemicals and decorative materials maker Omnova Solutions has agreed to support two Barrington nominees to its board of directors: James A. Mitarotonda, Barrington’s CEO, and Joseph M. Gingo, CEO of A. Schulman, a plastics compounder that Barrington partially owns. For its part, Barrington will support one new Omnova board nominee and three continuing nominees for election at Omnova’s upcoming annual meeting. In addition, Barrington has agreed to “certain customary standstill restrictions,” Omnova says. Barrington began making noise over Omnova’s organization last December when it called for the sale of the firm’s decorative materials business.