Starboard owns 6.5% stake in Rogers Corp -regulatory filing

Activist investment firm Starboard Value LP has amassed a 6.5% stake in Rogers Corp ROG and is seeking seats on the electronics materials company's board in its push for changes, according to a regulatory filing on Monday.

The firm, which is led by Jeffrey Smith, nominated three independent director candidates plus three of the firm's principals, including Smith, to Rogers' 10-person board, the filing shows. The hedge fund plans to decide later which of the Starboard executives will actually be listed on the ballot.

Reuters reported the stake and the nomination on Friday.

"We have engaged constructively with Starboard, as we would with any shareholder, and look forward to continuing this dialogue. The Nominating, Governance & Sustainability Committee of the Board is reviewing Starboard's proposed nominees," a representative for Rogers said in response to a request for comment.

Starboard did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The board challenge comes after chemical company DuPont DD in November walked away from a $5.2 billion deal to acquire Rogers because it failed to secure regulatory approval for the transaction in China. The deal had originally been announced in late 2021.

Rogers, which was founded in 1832, makes materials used in electronics and wireless infrastructure.

Its stock price tumbled after the DuPont deal was scrapped and is down 47% over the last 52 weeks. Since the start of 2023, the stock has climbed 22% as the broader market moved higher, giving Rogers a market value of $2.8 billion. It closed trading on Monday up 1.5% at $149.26.

The company has made changes since the DuPont deal fell apart. Colin Gouveia, who ran Rogers' elastomeric material solutions unit, became CEO this year. Former chief executive Bruce Hoechner, who retired at the end of last year, will step down from the board at the end of March, according to the company's website.

Starboard has been active, including recent bets on cloud-based software company Salesforce Inc CRM, software company Splunk (SPLK.O) and website maker Wix.com WIX.