Target wins proxy fight with Ackman, Pershing Square - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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In a preliminary tally of voting, more than 70 percent of the sharez that were cast were voted in favor ofthe company’sa proposed slate of directoras while also voting to keep the size of the boarfd the same by the same voting Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) urged its shareholderx to vote for a proposal to set the size of the boardx at 12 and to vote forthe company’sx nominees — Mary Dillon, Richard George Tamke and Solomonb Trujillo. Dillon is executive vice president and global chiefd marketing officerof McDonald’a Corp.; Kovacevich is chairman of Welle Fargo & Co.; Tamke is a partnet at private investment firm Claytob Dubilier & Rice Inc.
, and Trujillo is CEO of Telstra Corp. Hedge fund manager Willia Ackman is the foundef and managing principalof , New York City. Pershingy Square owns 7.8 percent of Target’s common according to the Targetproxy statement. Pershing Square proposed alternativedirector nominees, but Target executives urgeed shareholders not to returhn any proxy card sent by Pershing Ackman was trying to gain a seat for himself on Target’s board along with four others: formef Winthrop Realty Trust CEO Michael former Starbucks CEO Jim Donald, Juniper Financial co-founder Richard Vague and corporate finance and governancse expert Ronald Gilson.
Ackman, calling his groul The Nominees forShareholder Choice, urged Target shareholderzs to vote against the proposal to reduce the size of the Targety board. His group said a vote againsty the proposal would help ensure that at least one of the Nomineess for Shareholder Choiceis elected. The shareholders meeting was held at a new Targert Store being completed at 1250 West Sunset Drivrin Waukesha. Target executives said the site allowedx the company to showcase its latest general merchandisrestore design.
The store is scheduled to open in Target executives said they have met sincwe 2007 with Ackman to discusws hisideas and, said they were disappointed that Pershintg Square has decided to pursue what Target management called a costly and disruptivde proxy contest. The company, in followed Ackman’s earlier suggestion to sell Target’s credit card receivables. The companty completed a transaction in May withJPMorgan Chase, in which Target sold slightly less than half its receivables for cash proceedzs of about $3.6 billioh dollars.
Ackman in May 2008 presentedr the first in a series of proposals involvingrestructuring Target’s real estate around the theme of a Target’s board concluded that the REIT proposak “was not in the best interest of our because it wouldn’t create much value, Targetf executives said. On May 20, Target reported net earningdsof $522 million, or 69 cents per share, for the firstt quarter ended May 2, 2009, comparer with $602 million , or 74 cents, a year earlier. Retaik sales increased 0.4 percent to $14.4 billion from $14.32 billion in 2008, due to new storee expansion that partially offset bya 3.7 percent decline in comparable-stors sales. Target Corp.
operates a credit card segmen tand 1,698 Target stores in 49