The Morning Brief: Avon Reaches Deal with Barington-led Investor Group

Avon Products has reached a compromise deal with an investor group led by James Mitarotonda’sBarington Capital Group, thus avoiding a proxy fight. Under the deal, Barington — whose group includes NuOrion Partners AG and other investors who collectively own more than 3 percent of the shares — will be able to approve the appointment of an independent director to Avon’s board, which will be selected by Avon andCerberus Capital Management. Barington also agreed to withdraw its nominations for directors at Avon’s 2016 annual meeting.

In December, Cerberus agreed to invest $605 million in the beauty products company. Under their deal, Cerberus will invest $435 million in Avon Products in the form of convertible perpetual preferred stock. In addition, Avon North America will be separated from Avon Products into a privately-held company majority-owned and managed by Cerberus. Cerberus will acquire an 80.1 percent stake in Avon North America in exchange for a $170 million equity investment.

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Canyon Capital Advisors向亚班党金融集团董事会发出一封信，详细介绍了员工和其他人提出的一些担忧，关于“行为，诚信和真实性”的ambac总裁兼首席执行官Nader Tavakoli。员工的担忧：Tavakoli由本公司支付的“过度和个人开支”，并获得了支付赔偿“由AMBAC不成比例地承担。”峡谷还声称，一名支持托拉瓦利的股东在收入呼吁上实际上是一家公司的首席执行官，其中一家由Tavakoli管理的基金被投入。

“Canyon Capital believes these concerns reinforce those it previously expressed in seeking to review Ambac’s books and records relating to Mr. Tavakoli’s compensation and appointment as Ambac’s permanent President and CEO,” the hedge fund states in a public announcement. Canyon owns over 2.2 million shares, or nearly 5 percent of Ambac’s shares.

峡谷之前请求访问一个书籍d records of Ambac and its subsidiary Ambac Assurance Corporation, seeking information related to how Tavakoli was appointed and compensated. The letter also accuses Tavakoli of standing in the way of the company’s policy claim buybacks. “We understand that his actions behind-the-scenes interfered with the work of Ambac employees in implementing the policy claim buyback strategy and caused the company to lose pricing advantage, thus harming stockholders,” the letter states.

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Shares of hedge fund favorite Pandora fell more than 12 percent after the streaming music company announced a major management shake-up. As a result, CEO Brian McAndrews is out and co-founder Tim Westergren is returning as CEO. Investors are said to believe the moves reduce the chances the company will be put up for sale.

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Another day, another sharp move for the shares ofSunEdison. This time, the renewable energy’s stock surged by more than 4 percent, to close at $1.26, after it announced it will temporarily suspend contributing company stock to the retirement accounts of its directors and executive officers.

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Shares of缬草医药国际dropped another 7 percent or so to close at $28.86 after the Senate Special Committee on Aging said it subpoenaed the drug maker’s CEO, J. Michael Pearson, to testify at hearings on April 27 regarding the price of drugs.