Procter & Gamble says Peltz loses board seat bid by around 6 million votes

Procter & Gamble Co said on Monday that activist hedge fund manager Nelson Peltz had lost his bid to win a seat on the consumer goods company’s board by 6.15 million votes, according to its preliminary tally.

Peltz, whose Trian Fund Management LP owns a $3.5 billion stake in P&G, has sought a board seat in one of the biggest and most expensive proxy contests ever.

P&G chief executive David Taylor said last week that Peltz had lost the fight, but Peltz said the vote was too close to call and was not conceding.

He had contested the existing seat of Ernesto Zedillo, the former president of Mexico.

Peltz received 973.0 million votes, compared to Zedillo’s 979.2 million votes, P&G said in a filing.

The results were preliminary estimates and subject to change based on certification by an independent firm, the maker of Pampers diapers and Gillette razors said.

It is expected to take the independent firm weeks to deliver a final tally. The counting process is made difficult in this case because P&G has a large number of individual investors and many of them voted their own shares instead of having brokerages who hold the shares do the voting.

Peltz could not immediately be reached for comment on Monday.