(Reuters) – Activist investor Carl Icahn privately threatened a proxy fight for representation on the board of burger chain McDonald’s Corp, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Icahn, who turns 86 next week, takes large stakes in companies before pressuring management to make changes he believes will benefit shareholders.
The billionaire is pushing McDonald’s to treat pigs better, expecting the use of gestation crates to be banned altogether, the report added. The report did not say when he threatened to run a proxy fight.
McDonald’s is in talks with advisers to shield itself if he launches a campaign, the WSJ said.
McDonald’s and Icahn did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comments.
Icahn, who became known as a corporate raider on Wall Street, was embroiled in a similar proxy battle with Southwest Gas Holdings Inc in November last year.
(Reporting by Mehnaz Yasmin and Praveen Paramasivam in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
