This morning, the CtW Investment Group delivered a letter to O. Temple Sloan, lead director of the board of Bank of America, calling on the board to remove CEO Ken Lewis (seen above) for his “outsized, reckless risks” in managing Bank of America’s merger with busted bank Merrill Lynch — and promising to lead a shareholder revolt if action is not taken to end Lewis’ failed leadership by the next Bank of America annual meeting, scheduled for April 29th.
The letter points out that, since Lewis put through the merger in September of last year, Bank of America has:
- Suffered a 90% drop in share price
- Allowed Merrill to pay out $3.6 billion in bonuses, even as the firm was hemorrhaging money
- Denied any active role in determining the size of Merrill bonuses, a claim subsequently contradicted by documents that have emerged in the NY Attorney General’s investigation
- Failed to timely disclose over $20 billion in pre-tax losses at Merrill
- Failed to invoke the Material Adverse Effects clause of the merger agreement to protect BAC shareholders from these losses
In the letter, the Investment Group notified Sloan that if the Board has not acted to remove Lewis by the time of BofA’s next annual meeting this spring, the CtW Investment Group, which represents funds holding more than 33 million shares of Bank of America, will call for a vote at that meeting for the removal of Lewis, Sloan, and Corporate Governance Committee Chairman Thomas Ryan.
Our press release has more, or you can download the complete letter in PDF format.
REAX FROM AROUND THE WEB:
TPMDC: “CtW has upped the ante on Bank of America.”
The Business Insider: “Ken Lewis could come out tomorrow and say the quarter will be wildly profitable and nobody would believe him.”
Conde Nast Portfolio.com’s Daily Brief: “The objective is to raise awareness of the issues, and that is something CtW is expert at doing.”
TheDeal.com: “CtW has been successful at ousting executives in the past, too.”
Seen another writeup around the Web? Post a link in the comments!
Comments (1)
Comments posted to CtW Connect are the sole property of the individual posting them, and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of Change to Win, its affiliated unions, or its leadership.
did you know that BOA pays 25 million a month rent at One Bryant Park,The BOA Tower in Times Square NYC.This is not even their headquarters.Then on top of it all take 25 billion in stimulus money.I wounder where most of it is going.
Posted by Richard Di Giacomo on March 7, 2009 at 10:28 PM
Posted on March 7, 2009 at 10:28 PM