RTI Surgical (NSDQ:RTIX) said today that it beat back a proxy challenge from Krensavage Partners, after a preliminary count of shareholders’ votes showed that they elected RTI’s slate of directors.
In February, RTI said that hedge fund Krensavage Partners purchased approximately 3.4 million shares of stock, for a 6% stake in the company, and nominated 4 healthcare vets for its board. In April the Alachua, Fla.-based company had urged shareholders to approve its own nominees, Peter Gearen, Brian Hutchison, Thomas McEachin, Jonathon Singer, Paul Thomas, Nicholas Valeriani and Shirley Weis as board directors. Weis, McEachin, Hutchinson and Gearing are existing directors and Thomas, Singer and Valeriani are be new faces.
RTI Surgical said the final vote count is due to be published “in the next several weeks.”
“We are grateful for our stockholders’ support of our nominees. We value the insights and feedback we have received from our stockholders over the past several weeks. We believe that RTI has made significant progress, and we look forward to the successful execution of our plan,” chairman Curt Selquist said in prepared remarks.
Krensavage had pushed for a separate group of directors for the board: MModal IP chairman Jeffrey Goldberg; former RadNet exectutive Mark Stolpher; and John Watts Jr. and Frank Williams Jr.
RTIX shares were down -1.3% to $3.72 apiece today in early afternoon trading.