Yahoo Finance Billionaire investor launches battle against McDonald's treatment of pigs
One of Wall Street's most hard-nosed corporate raiders appears to be going soft in his old age.
Carl Icahn, the billionaire known for striking fear into the hearts of complacent chairmen and chief executives, has a new target – McDonald's and its treatment of pigs.
Mr Icahn's interest in animal welfare was reportedly inspired by his vegetarian daughter. He recently told a US newspaper: "Animals are one of the things I feel really emotional about."
The 86-year-old has acquired 200 McDonald's shares and nominated two political activists to be added to its board.
Mr Icahn has put forward climate-conscious asset manager Leslie Samuelrich and Maisie Ganzler, chief strategy officer at restaurant company Bon Appetit Management Company.
The fast food giant acknowledged the move on Monday, saying that it "relates to a narrow issue regarding the company's pork commitment".
It comes in an effort to force McDonald's to source its bacon, ribs and sausages from meat suppliers which are treating pigs better. According to McDonald's, Mr Icahn has pushed for the company to force all its US suppliers to switch to "crate free" pork, meaning they would no longer use small crates to house pregnant pigs, as well as set out clear timeframes on when this would be implemented.
Josh Balk from the Humane Society of the United States, which has pressed McDonald's to address this issue, said: "McDonald’s in 2012, in working with Carl Icahn and the Humane Society of the US, pledged to eliminate gestation crates... Instead, they are allowing pork producers to still confine pregnant pigs for six of the 16 weeks of their pregnancy.”
McDonald's responded late on Sunday, saying: "The current pork supply in the US would make this type of commitment impossible".
It said it was on track to source between 85pc and 90pc of its US pork from sows which were not placed in gestation crates by the end of the year, and expected all of its pork to come from sows housed in groups during pregnancy by the end of 2024.
However, it said pushing for the target immediately was a "departure from the veterinary science used for large-scale production throughout the industry, and would harm the company's shared pursuit of providing customers with high quality products at accessible prices".
McDonald's took aim at Mr Icahn personally, pointing to his majority ownership of pork and poultry packaging supplier Vickase.
"Mr Icahn's ownership provides him with unique exposure to the industry-wide challenges and opportunities in migrating away from gestation crates. Thus, it's noteworthy that Mr Icahn has not publicly called on Viskase to adopt commitments similar to those of McDonald's 2012 commitment."
Mr Icahn, who founded Icahn Enterprises, is known as one of Wall Street's most fierce activist investors, and has launched high-profile campaigns at the likes of Hertz, Caesars Entertainment and HP.
At Apple, he was successful in pushing for more cash to be returned to shareholders, after publishing a letter to chief executive Tim Cook in 2013 in which he wrote: "With such an enormous valuation gap and such a massive amount of cash on the balance sheet, we find it difficult to imagine why the board would not move more aggressively to buy back stock by immediately announcing a $150bn tender offer."
He branded the hoarding of cash "ridiculous". Ultimately, Mr Cook met with Mr Icahn, and Apple followed through with larger buybacks.
His investments have seen him accumulate around $23.6bn in wealth, putting him in the top 100 richest people in the world. He has signed the Bill Gates Giving Pledge, promising to give away at least half of his wealth.
Up until 2020, Mr Icahn was running his business from an office in Midtown in New York, but moved the operation to Miami, reportedly so he could fit in more after-work tennis matches. The state also has no income taxes.
He also previously served as an adviser to Donald Trump when he was president, but stepped down shortly after his appointment, writing to Mr Trump: “I chose to end this arrangement (with your blessing) because I did not want partisan bickering about my role to in any way cloud your administration."
Criticism had centred on claims that he had a conflict of interest, given his investments in businesses such as oil refiner CVR Energy, while he was advising around a change in biofuel policy. Mr Icahn denied that there was any conflict of interest.
Mr Icahn's life has recently been chronicled by HBO in the documentary, "Icahn: The Restless Billionaire", in which he compares himself to Alexander the Great, saying: “To everybody in the world, he was the best and the greatest.
“The army all worshiped him, but a lot of them deserted him because they thought he was crazy. He just kept going and going until they killed him, and I think about that. I’m a little bit like that.”
