Target Shareholder Finds Fault With Food Offering

NEW YORK (AP) — Activist shareholder William Ackman said Monday that the retailer Target Corp. has been hurt by a limited food offering and its unwillingness to look into ways to capitalize on its real estate.

Ackman, whose Pershing Square Capital Management hedge fund holds a 7.8 percent stake in Minneapolis-based Target, has nominated five candidates for election to Target's board at its annual meeting on May 28.

Pershing said Monday that an independent proxy advisory firm recommended that Target's shareholders vote for two of its nominees, Winthrop Realty Trust Chairman and Chief Executive Michael Ashner and former Starbucks Corp. Chief Executive Jim Donald.

Proxy Governance Inc. also said that stockholders should vote against Target's plan to limit the board to 12 members, Pershing said. Ackman wants Target to have a 13-member board.

In a letter to Target shareholders, Ackman said that the current board is insular and is ill equipped to deal with its shortcomings in the food business, calling it more limited that competitor Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s.

"We strongly believe that the board does not have sufficient food retailing expertise to advise, guide or challenge management on the company's grocery expansion strategies. In our view, these are all strategic missteps for which we hold the incumbent board of directors accountable," he wrote.