Page 25 - ATODAY

BUSINESS A25
Wednesday 9 March 2016

United faces battle with unhappy investors over board seats

A United Airlines aircraft takes off at Miami International Airport in Miami. In a letter made public to preserve power by this and 15 percent of Delta
Tuesday, March 8, 2016, two activist investors said they are pushing United Continental to shake entrenched board.” flights were late. And when
up its board by adding six new members, including former Continental Airlines CEO Gordon The most prominent nomi- late, the delays were not
Bethune. nee is Gordon Bethune, as severe, with American
who served as CEO of Con- averaging 54 minutes and
(AP Photo/Alan Diaz) tinental Airlines from 1994 Delta 57 minutes.
through 2004. Bethune is Shares of United fell 64
S. MAYEROWITZ In a surprise move Tues- timeter Capital, said in a largely seen as turning that cents, or 1.1 percent, to
AP Airlines Writer day morning, Altimeter statement that investors troubled airline into one of $56.97 around noon.
NEW YORK (AP) — Fed up Capital Management and are “greatly disappointed the country’s leading car- New CEO Oscar Munoz
with poor performance at PAR Capital Management with United’s poor perfor- riers. quickly brought some fresh
United Continental Hold- made a public pitch to mance and bad decisions United merged with Con- air to the company, tak-
ings, two investment firms add six of their own nomi- over the last several years.” tinental in 2010 and has ing responsibility for the
want to shake up the air- nees to the board. The two The firms’ announcement struggled ever since. Unions troubled integration and
line’s board of directors investment firms own a comes one day after Unit- fought the integration, cus- promising to make immedi-
and give a prominent role combined 7 percent stake ed increased its existing tomer service declined, ate changes to make em-
to an ex-CEO credited with of United Continental Hold- board by three members flights were delayed and ployees and passengers
saving Continental Airlines ings Inc. to 15, a move Gerstner computer problems per- happier.
more than a decade ago. Brad Gerstner, CEO of Al- called “a cynical attempt sisted. However, Munoz suffered
All of that caused United a heart attack on Oct. 15
to lose revenue and market and eventually needed
share to peers such as Del- a heart transplant. He is
ta Air Lines and American scheduled to just get back
Airlines, despite having one to work full-time Monday, a
of the best route networks. move welcomed by Wall
United is profitable but lag- Street.
ging behind its competition Vicki Bryan, an analyst at
in ticket prices. research firm Gimme Cred-
One quarter of all United it, said in a note Monday
flights last year left late, that Munoz has “managed
according to the Bureau already to introduce an
of Transportation statistics, encouraging new, more
with those that were late collegial tone, a vital signal
averaging 65 minutes in given worsening, near tox-
delays. ic labor relations over the
By comparison, only 19 previous five years.”
percent of American flights

Chevron cuts spending budget again

NEW YORK (AP) — Chev- pany’s financial priorities. fornia, has also cut jobs
ron is cutting its spending Chevron currently pays a and sold some of its facili-
budget by nearly 40 per- quarterly dividend of $1.07, ties and pipelines to raise
cent for 2017 and 2018 which it last increased in cash.
as it deals with plunging the first quarter of 2014. Shares of Chevron fell
oil prices, a bigger cut in Several energy companies $2.03, or 2.2 percent, to
spending than it previously have announced plans to $88.64 in morning trading
expected. trim spending due to lower Tuesday. The stock is down
The oil and gas compa- oil prices. Chevron Corp., about 14 percent in the
ny said that it expects to based in San Ramon, Cali- last year.
spend between $17 billion
and $22 billion on drilling
and other projects in 2017
and 2018, lower than the
$20 billion to $24 billion
range the company had
expected in October. The
company has a spend-
ing budget of $26.6 billion
this year, down 24 percent
from the year before.
“Industry conditions are
tough right now,” said
Chevron chairman and
CEO John Watson, in a
statement Tuesday.
Watson also affirmed divi-
dend growth and mainte-
nance of a strong balance
sheet as among the com-