Activist investor targets Air Products board

Mantle Ridge, which holds a 2% stake, currently worth about $1.3 billion, in Air Products & Chemicals, has nominated its own slate of directors to the board of the industrial gas firm. The nomination will be voted on at Air Products’ annual meeting early next year. The activist investor wants Air Products to come up with a succession plan for its 80-year-old CEO, Seifi Ghasemi, and to refresh its board of directors. Mantle Ridge also wants Air Products to concentrate on its core industrial gas business. In recent years, the company has launched big-ticket low-carbon hydrogen projects in an attempt to shift its focus to energy transition. Mantle wants Air Products to pause any efforts to divest core businesses, including a reported plan to sell its South Korean operations. Mantle’s nominees include Paul Hilal, its founder, and Dennis Reilley, a CEO of the former industrial gas firm Praxair. Air Products says it will release a formal recommendation about director nominees. It is also nominating two new directors to its board: Bob Patel and Alfred Stern, former CEOs of LyondellBasell Industries and Borealis, respectively.