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 Analysts now expect the influential investor to separately lobby
each company to improve their results.
Last year, Peltz urged Mondelez to sell itself to the beverage and
snacks giant, but PepsiCo balked at such a deal.
Trian is Mondelez's fourth-largest shareholder, with a 2.3 percent
stake, according to Thomson Reuters data. Trian also owns 0.8
percent of PepsiCo.
Peltz last summer said PepsiCo was at a "strategic crossroads" due
to changing consumer tastes and the rising importance of emerging
markets, and outlined two scenarios for improving results.
Plan A was to merge PepsiCo with Mondelez to create a larger company
with one of the most valuable brand portfolios in the world. Plan B
called for Pepsi to split its snacks and beverages businesses — which would allow each to focus on operational improvements.
"Given that Pepsi's not interested in Plan A, we are encouraging
them to pursue Plan B," Anne Tarbell, a spokeswoman for Peltz's
Trian Fund Management, told Reuters.
Peltz, 71, also has pushed Mondelez — whose performance has fallen
short of investor expectations since it was split from Kraft in
October 2012 — to manage its costs better, saying it could double
earnings per share by doing so.
Peltz has been instrumental in numerous food and beverages mergers
and divestitures at companies he believed were underperforming — including a series of deals that led to the creation of Mondelez.
Mondelez shares fell as much as 3.7 percent in morning trade on
Tuesday as hopes for a deal with PepsiCo evaporated.
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The shares were down 0.8 percent at $34.42 in afternoon trade on the
Nasdaq, while PepsiCo shares were up 0.8 percent at $82.98 on the
New York Stock Exchange.
"While this may have been disappointing for some investors, we see
this as a very amicable outcome that now allows the management team
and board (at Mondelez) to focus on running the business," Bernstein
Research analyst Alexia Howard wrote in a note.
Adding Peltz to the Mondelez board increased its size to 12, with 11
directors independent.
The move also eliminated the risk of an expensive and lengthy proxy
battle, J.P. Morgan analyst Ken Goldman said in a note.
Peltz helped orchestrate the 2008 spinoff of Dr Pepper Snapple Group
<DPS.N> from Cadbury, Kraft's purchase of Cadbury, and the
subsequent breakup of Kraft into Mondelez and Kraft Foods Group Inc
<KRFT.O>.
In addition to Mondelez and PepsiCo, Peltz's New York-based hedge
fund's top five holdings include Wendy's Co <WEN.O>, Family Dollar
Stores Inc <FDO.N> and Ingersoll-Rand Plc <IR.N>.
(Reporting by Aditi Shrivastava,
Martinne Geller and Lisa Baertlein; editing by Joyjeet Das, Ted Kerr
and Bernard Orr)
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