Hedge fund Third Point adds Bath & Body Works stake, seeks board changes

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NEW YORK — Hedge fund Third Point has

built a stake of just over 6% in Bath & Body Works and

is pushing for new board members at the retailer, the fund said

in a regulatory filing on Thursday, laying the foundation for a

possible board challenge.

The stock price climbed in after-hours trading on news of

the filing.

Third Point, run by billionaire investor Daniel Loeb, owns

13.7 million shares of Bath & Body Works, the filing said. It

started buying the stock, which has tumbled nearly 40% this

year, in October.

In the filing Third Point criticized the company’s board for

approving excessive executive pay packages, saying it needed to

cut costs.

Third Point revealed its stake in a so-called 13D filing

that the hedge fund rarely makes, signaling a potential proxy

fight.

A Bath & Body Works representative did not respond to a

request for comment.

The retailer, with a market capitalization of $9.6 billion,

in November appointed former Unilever senior executive Gina

Boswell as its chief executive.

Third Point, which oversees some $12 billion in assets and

pursues various investment strategies, has recently called for

board changes at several companies, including Walt Disney Co

and Colgate-Palmolive Co .

Third Point and Disney reached a settlement to add a new

director to its board in September.

Third Point last ran a proxy contest in 2018 at Campbell

Soup where the fund initially proposed ousting the

entire board, blaming it for the company’s lagging stock price

and takeover spree that saddled it with heavy debt. It settled

the fight days before investors were to vote at the annual

meeting in late 2018.

(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Aurora Ellis and

Richard Chang)

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