Water Street Capital Inc. did not get all of its nominees elected but the Jacksonville-based investment firm won three of five seats on the board of REC Silicon ASA at a June 25 shareholders meeting.
Water Street, which has generally stayed under the radar since it was founded by Gilchrist Berg nearly 40 years ago, launched a proxy fight against REC Silicon because it opposed a buyout deal for the Norway-based company.
Without giving details on the vote, REC Silicon said Water Street Principal John Adams was elected chair of its board and two other Water Street nominees, Karina Fossmark and Jane Power, won board seats.
Water Street’s two other nominees were not elected but all five REC Silicon board members were defeated in their bids for reelection.
The other two nominees to win board seats included Jens Ulltveit-Moe, who was a former majority shareholder and lead board member of REC Silicon, according to a report by Source One News.
The company did not say who nominated Ulltveit-Moe and the other new board member, Mike Kerschen.
Water Street, which controls 8.26% of REC Silicon’s stock, took on the previous board after it agreed to a buyout offer from Hanwha Solutions Corp.
Hanwha owns one-third of REC Silicon’s stock and agreed to buy all remaining shares for 2.20 Norwegian kroner each, a price Water Street argued was too low.
“Water Street Capital would like to thank the thousands of investors who joined us in our efforts to ensure that the top priority of REC Silicon’s Board of Directors remains maximizing the value of the company,” Berg said in a news release.
“Water Street Capital’s objectives are 100% aligned with our fellow shareholders. We do not believe that shareholders were given proper information regarding the value of the company and its assets when asked to vote in favor of the drastically undervalued NOK 2.20 offer,” he said.
REC Silicon issued a statement:
“In a period where the Company needed continuity and stability at board level, both Hanwha and the Offeror deeply regret the outcome of the annual general meeting of the Company held on 25 June 2025, where a board not supported by Hanwha was elected,” it said.
The statement said there will be no increase in Hanwha’s offer.
The silicon products company also said it will soon need additional financing from Hanwha or another source.
Cannae Holdings Inc., the investment firm spun off from Jacksonville-based Fidelity National Financial Inc., is facing continued pressure from an activist firm that launched a proxy fight to win seats on its board.
Carronade Capital, which owns about 5.2% of Cannae’s stock, filed a proxy statement in April to nominate four candidates for seats on the company’s 10-member board.
In May, Cannae announced several changes, including promoting President Ryan Caswell to CEO, with former CEO Bill Foley transitioning to nonexecutive vice chairman of the company’s board.
However, those changes did not satisfy Carronade’s concerns about the company.
Cannae has not set a date for its annual shareholders meeting and Carronade issued a news release June 23 urging the company to schedule the meeting.
“Cannae’s failure to schedule its 2025 Annual Meeting in the midst of a contested election and in a manner consistent with its past annual meetings raises serious doubts about the Board’s supposed ‘significant advancements in governance,’” Carronade said.
“Shareholders deserve an explanation of the corporate purpose and reason for delaying the meeting; absent that, it appears to be another transparent effort to evade accountability, further entrench the current Board and disenfranchise Cannae’s long-suffering shareholders.”
Cannae did not issue a response to Carronade’s release.
Susquehanna Financial analyst Bascome Majors downgraded his rating on Jacksonville-based CSX Corp. after gains in the stock since April, fueled in part by merger speculation.
“In November we suggested Class I rail consolidation could have a higher possibility than perceived once the Trump administration re-stocked the STB,” Majors said in a June 24 report on railroad stocks.
The industry is waiting for President Donald Trump to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Surface Transportation Board, “but management and consultant quotes in the rail trade press and call option activity in CSX are fanning speculative flames here and now,” Majors said.
“In the near-term, we see M&A speculation as just that ... speculation.”
CSX, which serves most of the eastern U.S., is one of six Class I freight railroad companies in North America, which are the largest railroads.
Executives from the big railroads, including CSX, downplayed merger talk at an investment conference in May, according to a report by trains.com.
Still, CSX’s stock was up 16% since mid-April, Majors said in his report. Union Pacific Corp., which serves western states, was up only 3%.
“We’d attribute CSX’s recent outperformance vs. UNP to high short-term expectations for UNP into 1Q, CSX’s massive service improvement from April’s nadir of network disruption back to relatively normal fluidity in recent weeks, and speculation that larger Western rails could acquire Eastern rails,” he said.
Majors downgraded CSX from “positive” to “neutral” and upgraded Union Pacific from “neutral” to “positive.”
CSX’s service has been disrupted by damage to its rail line in western Tennessee from Hurricane Helene and the closing of a line in Baltimore for a planned tunnel improvement project.
“Yet CSX is showing significant signs of improvement (in service) including a stabilization in hiring,” Majors said.
Two analysts expressed differing views on Redwire Corp.’s stock after the Jacksonville-based space technology firm expanded with the acquisition of uncrewed airborne system company Edge Autonomy.
Truist Securities analyst Michael Ciarmoli initiated coverage June 26 with a “hold” rating and a $16 price target, with the stock trading at $16.02 at the time of his report.
“As a space SPAC survivor Redwire has evolved and increased its portfolio from a space pure-play into a defense-tech disruptor, emphasized by the recent acquisition of Edge Autonomy,” he said in his report.
Redwire went public in 2021 by merging with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC.
“Redwire is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the needs of defense, commercial, and civil space customers, but financial performance remains tenuous,” Ciarmoli said.
“While Edge adds profitable and fast growing unmanned assets to the portfolio which should aid margin accretion, growth fell last quarter. We would like to see more consistent financial performance and tangible benefits from Edge before gaining full conviction in the story,” he said.
H.C. Wainwright analyst Scott Buck is more optimistic, maintaining his “buy” rating with a $26 price target in a June 24 report.
“We believe the business combination improves Redwire’s positioning in both space and national defense, two areas we expect to see increasing demand and investment over the coming years,” Buck said.
“We suspect demand could be further increased by recent military actions across Eastern Europe and the Middle East,” he said.
“While the transaction was completed in mid-June, information transfers between the two companies are already taking place suggesting an accelerated timeline for integration, which should allow the business to take advantage of near term opportunities.”