DuPont slams 'inaccurate' claims by raider Peltz

The DuPont Co. fired back at billionaire investor Nelson Peltz's attempt to load himself and allies of his Trian Fund Management LP onto DuPont's board, extract more cash for shareholders, cut costs and reconsider research spending by the Wilmington-based chemical, bioscience and materials manufacturer.

In a letter to shareholders today, DuPont blasted Peltz for "misrepresentations, inaccurate data, and flawed analyses" in Trian's past letters to shareholders, which claimed that DuPont CEO Ellen Kullman and her predecessors had delivered lower-than-average results compared to other companies. In a second shareholder letter today, DuPont laid out comparative one-year, three-year and five year shareholder returns against benchmarks showing DuPont outperformed its rivals and the S&P 500 in those years, and adds that most of the gains took place before Trian began and accelerated its campaign to restructure the company.

DuPont added that its own restructuring and expense cuts have boosted shareholder returns, and that the only other chemical company Trian has invested in, Chemtura Corp., filed for bankruptcy protection a year after Trian's investment, in 2009. DuPont denied its latest spinoff, of its Chemours titanium-dioxide business, including a plant in Edgemoor, Del., and others around the world, resulted from Trian activism. DuPont did not address the criticism by credit analysts of the company's plan to give $4 billion from the Chemours sale to shareholders, instead of using it to pay down debt as bond investors had expected.

DuPont's shareholder letters today and Trian's critical reports from last week can be read here on the SEC's Edgar database website. The three most recent filings, all dated Feb. 17, are DuPont's new responses to Trian. The next two filings, dated Feb. 11 and labeled "filed by non-management," include Trian's most recent critiques of DuPont and CEO Kullman's performance.