Trian Fund Management LP on Tuesday disclosed that it bought a $3.5 billion stake in Procter & Gamble Co , making it the second activist shareholder to take aim at the consumer products giant in the last five years.

Continue Reading Below

Cincinnati, Ohio-based P&G, maker of Tide detergent, Gillette razors and Crest toothpaste, is a $225 billion behemoth whose stock price has hardly budged from the $85 per share range in the last two years.

The stock closed at $87.86 on Tuesday, a few dollars above where it traded this time two years ago.

Trian was founded in 2005 by Nelson Peltz, Ed Garden and Peter May. The investment fund focuses mainly on three sectors: consumer brand companies, industrial and financial firms.

The New York-based firm is known for making large investments in a small amount of companies where it pushes for board representation and for strategic moves that will increase revenues while reducing expenses.

At $3.5 billion, Trian's stake in P&G is its largest position by far.

Continue Reading Below

ADVERTISEMENT

Trian's current portfolio includes Mondelez International Inc , maker of Oreo cookies and Cadbury chocolate, and industrial group General Electric .

Activist hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management invested in Procter & Gamble in 2012, and called for the ouster of its then CEO, Robert McDonald.

P&G reported better-than-expected quarterly sales last month, driven partly by its beauty and health care businesses, and raised its fiscal 2017 forecast for organic sales growth.

(Additional reporting by Subrat Patnaik in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr)

Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.