Insituform Board Survives Proxy Contest

In a vote of support for the current board of directors for Insituform Technologies Inc., shareholders voted May 19 at the annual stockholders’ meeting against a slate of candidates offered up by Water Asset Management in a recent proxy vote.

Water Asset Management, which serves an advisor to a group of funds that own 5.3 percent of Insituform, had put forth five candidates to serve on the board and had also recommended reducing the board from seven members to six.

After the votes were tallied, Nickolas Vande Steeg was the only nominee backed by Water Asset Management to be elected to the board. Stockholders re-elected six board members: Joe Burgess, Stephen Cortinovis, Stephanie Cuskley, John Dubinsky, Juanita Hinshaw and Alfred Woods, according to the St. Louis Business Journal.  

Woods, Insituform’s chairman who had also recently served as interim CEO, was quoted in the Journal as saying, “We are glad to put the proxy contest behind us and are committed to driving sustainable and profitable growth and continuing to enhance stockholder value.”

Water Asset Management had pushed for a sale of Insituform in December 2007 and later nominated its slate of potential directors. The group cited leadership and performance as reasons for change. Insituform’s sales dropped 6 percent in 2007 vs. 2006, while profits fell 90 percent, according to the St. Louis Dispatch. However, the company had posted a 9 percent gain in the first quarter of 2008. Insituform had cited last year a sluggish sewer rehab market and the closure of its tunneling division as reasons for the falloff.