Good thing the Kraczons had other plans lined up for their trip south from Michigan, besides attending PulteGroup’s annual shareholder meeting in Atlanta.
The meeting Wednesday afternoon at Buckhead’s Grand Hyatt was over in 14 minutes. It ended with little shareholder support for the efforts of Bill Pulte, the company’s 83-year-old founder and its largest shareholder, to shake things up at the Atlanta homebuilder.
Longtime shareholders Jon and Gloria Kraczon, of Warren, Michigan, wanted to know why Pulte and the company's top leadership have been locked in an unusually public spat for more than a month.
Pulte, who owns 9 percent of the company’s shares, had pledged to vote against all the company’s directors to show his displeasure with the running of the company under his former protege, CEO Richard Dugas.
But at Wednesday’s shareholder meeting, all of the directors, including Dugas, were elected with at least 83 percent of shareholder votes, the company said. The margin was 93 percent excluding Pulte’s votes, the company said.
A non-binding shareholder vote on whether to approve top executives’ pay also was supported by 83 percent of shareholder votes.
“Why does (Pulte) want them out?” asked Jon Kraczon, a former Boeing manager, who has owned PulteGroup shares for decades.
He didn’t get an answer Wednesday.
Pulte apparently didn’t attend the meeting. Dugas didn’t mention the dispute in a short presentation on the company’s recent financial performance. No shareholders asked any questions.
“We’re going to Huntsville tomorrow,” said Gloria Kraczon, to visit that Alabama city’s aerospace museum and re-live some of her husband’ memories from his early days working for Boeing, building Saturn rocket boosters for the NASA space program.
In interviews and letters to shareholders, Pulte has said he is unhappy with the company’s stock and financial performance and pace of home building, which have lagged other homebuilders’ performance in recent years. He also questioned the Dugas-led decision to move the company’s headquarters to Atlanta from suburban Detroit in 2014.
The company has defended Dugas, who abruptly announced more than a month ago that he plans to retire in 2017. Wednesday, Dugas said his strategy has resulted in more efficient operations and a turnaround in the company’s fortunes since 2011.
“PulteGroup is in great shape with a strong management team and a sound strategy,” he told the group of about 50 shareholders, employees and directors who attended Wednesday’s meeting.
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