Starboard Readies Board Slate at Knife River as Pressure for Sale Builds
KNF is trading near its 52-week low of $47.79 (3.7% above the low).
Summary
Starboard is lining up director candidates to nominate to Knife River's board, per Reuters, escalating a campaign that began when the WSJ reported its significant stake last month. The fund has already publicly demanded adjusted EBITDA margins of at least 22% and wants the company to evaluate strategic alternatives, including a sale. A proxy fight would put the board itself in play at a company trading near its 52-week low of $47.79, down from a $96.28 high — a valuation gap activists typically cite. Jeff Smith speaks Tuesday at the 13D Monitor Active-Passive Investor Summit, a likely venue for laying out the thesis publicly. Q3 results land November 3, the next hard datapoint on whether margin trends support Starboard's case.
At the time of this announcement, KNF was trading at $49.58 on NYSE in the Real Estate & Construction sector, with a market capitalization of approximately $2.8B. The 52-week trading range was $47.79 to $96.28. This news item was assessed with positive market sentiment and an importance score of 8 out of 10. Source: Seeking Alpha.