PulteGroup Inc.'s founder and largest stockholder hired lawyers from a shareholder-activism practice, a sign that he'll increase pressure to get Richard Dugas to step down immediately as the homebuilder's chief executive officer.
Bill Pulte retained Steve Wolosky and Aneliya Crawford, partners with Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP and members of its Activist & Equity Investment Practice, Crawford said Tuesday. The practice has been involved in seeking board representation at more than 300 publicly traded companies, according to its website.
Pulte's 27-year-old grandson, who shares his name, declined to comment on the law firm. He said on Monday that the family missed the deadline for a proxy fight ahead of next month’s shareholder meeting and that it was evaluating "other options." Crawford declined to comment on the specifics of Pulte's strategy. Jim Zeumer, a PulteGroup spokesman, declined to comment.
The hiring shows that the battle over the direction of the third-biggest U.S. homebuilder is likely to intensify as the Pultes pit themselves against a board that backs Dugas, the company's CEO since 2003 and its chairman beginning in 2009. Pulte, who founded the company in 1950 at the age of 18, has blamed Dugas for the departures of talented executives, overly aggressive land purchases before the crash and the stock's weaker performance relative to some peers.
PulteGroup, in a letter to shareholders last week, said
Shares of PulteGroup have fallen 20% in the past year, compared with a 7% decline in the Standard & Poor’s Supercomposite Homebuilding Index.
PulteGroup has been profitable under Dugas. The company's fourth-quarter net income climbed 5% from a year earlier as both revenue and its gross margin on home sales improved.
"The PulteGroup board and management team will continue to stay focused on delivering on the successful strategy it has been executing since 2011," the company said in a statement Monday.
