The Gulf Time Newspaper One of the finest business newspapers in the UAE brought to you by our professional writers and editors.
Bloomberg
BlueMountain Capital Management LLC has found a potent ally in its fight to overhaul leadership of bankrupt utility giant PG&E Corp: activist investor ValueAct Capital Management.
BlueMountain, a PG&E shareholder that pushed to keep PG&E out of bankruptcy, launched a proxy fight to replace its board in the days prior to the company’s Chapter 11 filing in January and has been seeking support from other investors. ValueAct Chief Executive Officer Jeff Ubben stepped forward to say one of his funds has taken a position in the company, and BlueMountain named him as one of its 13 nominations for the board.
In joining the campaign, Ubben said in an interview that PG&E “needs a restart to gain the trust of stakeholders.†ValueAct Spring Fund has bought 1 million shares of PG&E, according to BlueMountain’s open letter to PG&E shareholders. PG&E rose as much as 7.3 percent.
Both ValueAct and BlueMountain are looking for a major turnaround in PG&E’s leadership that will have the company emerge from the biggest utility bankruptcy in US history with a board that’s ready to tackle the future of the company alongside California and its customers. The state’s largest utility is facing an estimated $30 billion in wildfire liabilities because California holds power companies responsible for any blazes their power lines cause.