TAFE Submits Proposal to Separate Board Chair and CEO Roles at AGCO’s 2025 Annual Meeting

By: Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited via Business Wire

November 25, 2024 at 06:00 AM EST

Believes That Requiring an Independent Chair Will Enhance Board Oversight, Increase Accountability and Improve Performance at AGCO

Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited (together with certain of its affiliates, “TAFE” or “we”), is the largest shareholder of AGCO Corporation (NYSE: AGCO) (“AGCO” or the “Company”) with a 16.3% long-term strategic ownership interest in the Company. Today, TAFE announced that it has submitted a 14a-8 shareholder proposal for inclusion in the Company’s proxy statement for its 2025 Annual Meeting of Shareholders to request that the Company adopt a policy requiring that AGCO’s Chair of the Board of Directors (the “Board”) be an independent director.

TAFE believes separating the roles of Chair and CEO, both of which are currently held by Eric Hansotia, will enhance the Board’s oversight and increase accountability within the leadership structure. At AGCO, the combined Chair and CEO position has failed to serve the best interests of shareholders and has led to suboptimal strategic and capital allocation decisions and underperformance, as evidenced by the following:

Weak Strategy and Performance: AGCO has delivered weaker than expected sales for five successive quarters. The Company’s revenue growth and margin improvement have trailed peers since 2021, and its operating margin continues to be the lowest among its competitors. Management’s consistent financial outlook cuts reflect its inability to foresee the cyclical downturn or respond in the face of reduced demand.

Unsuccessful Acquisitions: AGCO has been overly dependent on acquisitions that have failed to deliver returns or growth. Management’s inability to integrate acquisitions has led to significant write-offs, including AGCO’s sale of the majority of its Grain & Protein business (resulting in losses amounting to at least $670.6 million).¹

Missed Market Opportunities: AGCO has consistently lost market share in key markets that are core to its current strategy and its niche strategy has proven ineffective across industry cycles, demonstrating inadequate oversight from the Board. Given the critical importance of successfully executing on PTx Trimble, AGCO’s largest investment, enhanced Board oversight to ensure management accountability is crucial.

Ineffective Governance Structure: It is clear to us that AGCO’s current governance structure has stifled accountability and strategic rigour, with the individual responsible for evolving and executing AGCO’s strategy also leading governance and oversight. The Company’s Lead Director has been no substitute for an independent Board Chair, and, in our view, the combined Chair and CEO structure has exaggerated poor decision-making and hindered strategic execution, leaving shareholders stunted by poor capital allocation, weakened competitive positioning and a lack of operational expertise to weather the impacts of the commodity cycle.

An independent Chair would help ensure the Board provides robust oversight and strategic guidance, enabling AGCO to respond effectively to competitive pressures, capitalize on strategic opportunities and better navigate future market cycles.

About TAFE

TAFE - Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited, is an Indian tractor major incorporated in 1960 at Chennai, India. One of the largest tractor manufacturers in the world and the second largest in India, TAFE sells over 180,000 tractors annually.

TAFE has earned the trust of customers with its range of high-quality products, low cost of operation and a strong distribution network of over 1600+ dealers. TAFE exports tractors to over 80 countries, powering farms in Asia, Africa, Europe, the Americas, and Russia.

Besides tractors, TAFE and its subsidiaries have diverse business interests in areas such as farm-machinery, diesel engines and gensets, agro-industrial engines, engineering plastics, gears and transmission components, hydraulic pumps and cylinders, vehicle franchises and plantations.

TAFE is committed to Total Quality Management (TQM). In the recent past, various manufacturing plants of TAFE have garnered numerous ‘TPM Excellence’ awards from the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance (JIPM), as well as a number of other regional awards for TPM excellence. TAFE's tractor plants are certified under international standards ISO 9001 for efficient quality management systems and under ISO 14001 for environment-friendly operations. In 2013, TAFE was presented the coveted ‘Agriculture Leadership Award' by Agriculture Today Magazine and the ‘Corporate Citizen of the Year Award’ by Public Relations Council of India (PRCI). TAFE was also named the ‘Best Employer in India 2013’ by Aon Hewitt and has the distinction of receiving commendation for ‘Significant Achievement on the Journey Towards Business Excellence’ by the CII-EXIM Bank - Business Excellence Award jury in 2012.

¹ Company SEC filings.