NEW YORK - Activist investor Jana Partners urged Lamb Weston on Monday to replace board members and top executives to improve its performance or else put itself up for sale.
If the board is unwilling to make"significant changes needed to repair Lamb Weston," then the company should put itself up for sale at a time when strategic buyers are interested, the letter said.Jana owns more than 5% of the roughly $11 billion company and said in October that it wanted to see improvements in operations and capital allocation, and possibly a sale.
Holding company Continental Grain is working with Jana on the investment and the partners have identified several industry executives, including former Lamb Weston executive chairman Timothy McLevish, as potential board candidates, Jana said earlier. Jana also pointed to"questionable use and disclosure practices" around the company's aircraft, citing heavy use of a plane between its headquarters in Boise, Idaho, and Omaha, Nebraska, 1,000 miles away. The letter said Omaha"appears to be the CEO's primary residence.