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Ackman, ADP board nominees to discuss plans for company Thursday

October 17, 2017 at 09:23 pm EDT

(Reuters) - Activist investor William Ackman's dissident director candidates for board seats at Automatic Data Processing Inc will answer questions about their plans for the company on Thursday ahead of November's proxy vote.

Sanford C Bernstein & Co investment analyst Lisa Ellis will interview director candidates Veronica Hagen and Paul Unruh as well as Ackman at an event organized by Bernstein, Ackman's hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management said.

The event will be streamed live online on Thursday at 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT) at https://adpascending.com/.

The event comes before the Nov. 7 vote where Ackman is vying for three seats on ADP's 10-member board. While the 51-year-old investor has been giving public presentations since August, his two candidates have stayed largely out of sight.

Ackman is pushing ADP to cut bureaucracy, consolidate its real estate holdings and enhance technology, all to boost earnings.

Ellis published a research note last week that said a survey of shareholders commissioned by her firm many applauded Pershing Square's push for change at ADP.

"The survey results, in our view, increase the likelihood that Pershing will win meaningful support in the Nov. 7 shareholder vote, although we still consider it unlikely the activist wins seats," Ellis said in the note.

(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss in Boston; Addiytional reporting by Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Stocks mentioned in the article

	Add to a list Add to a list 0 selected To use this feature you must be a member Log in Sign up	Price	Change	5d. change	Capi.
	AUTOMATIC DATA PROCESSING, INC.	246.3 USD	+1.23%	+0.91%	101B

William Ackman

William (Bill) Ackman is the founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, an American hedge fund that holds shares in Wendy’s International and McDonald’s Corporation. As well it has interest in Target Corp., the second largest discount company in US.

Graduated at Harvard College, he holds also an MBA from Harvard Business School. He began his career working for his father in the real estate, and in 1993 he founded Gotham Partners Management Co. This investment company encounters some troubles including legal problems that will lead to its dissolution in 2003.

In 2004, William Ackman comes back on the financial stage. He has created Pershing Square Capital, and he showed a lot of activism buying massive share in the lowest price for resale in two years maximum. A short-term strategy often criticized by the US Medias. His different attacks against FSA, American division of Dexia, and also against MBIA and Ambac, that it forecast the collapse, earned him a strong enmity in financial world.

In 2007, William Ackman took a share up to 5 millions of dollar (3,5%) in Sears Holdings, third group in distribution sector in US, behind Wal-Mart and Home Depot.

Pershing Square Capital Management manages approximately 2.4 billion of dollar of which 40% was invested in shares of McDonald.

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Pershing Square Capital Management LP Pershing Square Capital Management LP Investment ManagersFinance Pershing Square Capital Management LP (PSCM) is an independent, SEC-registered investment advisor and hedge fund manager headquartered in New York City. The firm was founded in 2003 by William Ackman and David Berkowitz. PSCM provides investment advisory services to a variety of private investment funds.	Chief Executive Officer
Pershing Square Foundation	Founder

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