Disney’s Board Candidates Pull Ahead of Activist Investor Nelson Peltz With More Than Half Votes Cast: Report

variety.com:

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Disney and CEO Bob Iger have pulled into the lead for their 12 board candidates to win reelection — with activist investor Nelson Peltz trailing — with more than half of shareholder votes cast ahead of the Mouse House’s April 3 annual meeting, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Two of Disney’s institutional investors — BlackRock (which owns about 4.2% of outstanding shares) and T. Rowe Price (0.5%) — support the company’s own slate of directors, which include Iger, per the Journal, citing anonymous sources.

The WSJ article did not indicate how big a lead Disney’s 12-member board slate reportedly has over Peltz. According to the Journal’s report, with about 20% of shares voted as of last week, Peltz had been leading the race to replace incumbent Disney board member Maria Elena Lagomasino (while Trian‘s other nominee, ex-Disney CFO Jay Rasulo, was trailing).

Reps for Disney, Trian and T. Rowe Price did not respond to requests for comment on the WSJ report. A BlackRock spokesman declined to comment.