{"id":21246,"date":"2016-07-28T22:13:31","date_gmt":"2016-07-28T15:13:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/?p=21246"},"modified":"2016-07-28T22:04:17","modified_gmt":"2016-07-28T15:04:17","slug":"hill-international-executive-try-to-fend-off-activist-investor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/hill-international-executive-try-to-fend-off-activist-investor\/","title":{"rendered":"Hill International executive try to fend off activist investor"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nA construction management firm overseeing the Riyadh Metro project is caught in a battle with an activist shareholder seeking to remove its chairman amid claims of weak performance and governance. Hill International’s chief executive, David Richter, has written to shareholders ahead of the company’s annual general meeting urging them to vote down a proposal to remove his father, Irvin, who is the chairman of the company, and two other board directors that has been tabled by the activist shareholder Bulldog Investors.Hill International is a US project management company that earns most of its revenue in the Middle East. The company has 16 offices in 13 countries in the Mena region, from where it generated 48 per cent of the US$631 million it earned in consulting fees last year. According to the US trade title Engineering News Record, it is the biggest independently owned construction management firm in the world. Its current work includes the Riy\u00adadh Metro; airport extensions in Jeddah, Muscat and Salalah; and phase one of Dubai Parks and Resorts’ theme park project.In a letter to shareholders published on Monday, David Richter said that a vote to retain the three directors Bulldog is looking to replace – Irvin Richter, Steve Kramer and Gary Maz\u00adzucco – was “absolutely critical to the continued success of the company”.He defended its financial performance, which he said had “significantly improved” last year following a push to remove $21m of overheads from the business. It declared a net profit of $6.9m, compared with a $6.1m loss a year earlier. Mr Richter said that this had been achieved despite the fall in oil prices and more than $8.7m in one-off costs. He also said that many of its competitors posted heavy losses.”Do we believe this turn\u00adaround was a major accomplishment? Yes, we do,” he said. He added that net profit for the first quarter of this year increased by 107 per cent when compared with the final quarter of last year, and said the alternative directors Bulldog Investors were proposing for its board were not sufficiently qualified. He argued that Bulldog Investors had no strategic plan for the company, other than to remove him as the chief executive.Bulldog Investors had earlier written to the company’s shareholders criticising its financial performance and its governance. It argued that shareholders had not seen the benefit of the $21m cost reduction cited by David Richter. It said selling, general and administrative expenses increased by $24.1m last year, equating to 38 per cent of the company’s overall revenue – up from 35 per cent two years earlier. It argued that David Richter was overpaid, with the $3.6m he earned in total compensation last year representing 53 per cent of Hill International’s net profit last year. It also criticised the company for dismissing two approaches from the private equity fund DC Capital Partners – one valuing Hill at $5.50 per share in December, and a second at $4.75 per share in May. At close on Wednesday, Hill’s shares were trading at $4.32.Nobody from Bulldog Investors was available for comment. However, after publication of Hill’s letter, Bulldog’s general partner Phil Goldstein replied to David Richter criticising Hill’s board directors.He cited a decision taken in 2014 when Irvin Richter stepped down as chief executive to offer him a contract as chairman on a salary of $1.2m “that does not require [him] to perform any specific duties” as an example of weak corporate governance.”The simple truth is that the directors that rubber-stamped such an outrageous giveaway should be replaced with truly independent directors,” Mr Goldstein said.The general meeting is due to take place on August 11.mfahy@thenational.aeFollow The National’s Business section on Twitter
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\nSource : thenational.ae
\nRead more…Hill International executive try to fend off activist investor<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A construction management firm overseeing the Riyadh Metro project is caught in a battle with...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-property-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p75ss1-5wG","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":21238,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/hill-international-leaders-try-to-fend-off-activist-investor\/","url_meta":{"origin":21246,"position":0},"title":"Hill International leaders try to fend off activist investor","date":"July 28, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r A construction management firm overseeing the Riyadh Metro project is caught in a battle with an activist shareholder seeking to remove its chairman amid claims of weak performance and governance. Hill International's chief executive, David Richter, has written to shareholders ahead of the company's annual general meeting urging them\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21242,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/hill-international-executives-try-to-fend-off-activist-investor\/","url_meta":{"origin":21246,"position":1},"title":"Hill International executives try to fend off activist investor","date":"July 28, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r A construction management firm overseeing the Riyadh Metro project is caught in a battle with an activist shareholder seeking to remove its chairman amid claims of weak performance and governance. Hill International's chief executive, David Richter, has written to shareholders ahead of the company's annual general meeting urging them\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26668,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/activist-shareholder-succeeds-in-removing-hill-internationals-founder-from-its-board\/","url_meta":{"origin":21246,"position":2},"title":"Activist shareholder succeeds in removing Hill International's founder from its board","date":"September 20, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r The US construction consultancy Hill International has acceded to demands from the activist shareholder Bulldog Investors by removing three directors, including the founder Irvin Richter.The company, which earned 48 per cent of its US$631 million in consulting fees from the Middle East last year, stated that it had settled\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26628,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/activist-succeeds-in-removing-hill-internationals-founder-from-its-board\/","url_meta":{"origin":21246,"position":3},"title":"Activist succeeds in removing Hill International's founder from its board","date":"September 20, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r The US construction consultancy Hill International has acceded to demands from the activist shareholder Bulldog Investors by removing three directors, including the founder Irvin Richter.The company, which earned 48 per cent of its US$631 million in consulting fees from the Middle East last year, stated that it had settled\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22855,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/irvin-richter-steps-down-as-hill-international-chairman-as-company-postpones-agm\/","url_meta":{"origin":21246,"position":4},"title":"Irvin Richter steps down as Hill International chairman as company postpones AGM","date":"August 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Project management company Hill International announced on Thursday the creation of two new board positions as it attempted to fend off pressure from the activist investor Bulldog Investors. The US-based business, which earns most of its revenue from the Middle East, announced on Thursday that its board had \"determined\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21953,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/middle-east-decline-sees-hill-internationals-q2-net-profit-fall-66\/","url_meta":{"origin":21246,"position":5},"title":"Middle East decline sees Hill International's Q2 net profit fall 66%","date":"August 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Construction management company Hill International reported that net profit in its second quarter shrunk by two-thirds as a result of decline in work from the Middle East.The US-based company, which is set for a showdown with activist shareholder Bulldog Investors at its annual general meeting (AGM) next week, reported\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21246"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21246\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}