Dive Brief:
- Wintergreen Advisers, a minority shareholder in Coca-Cola, is saying that CEO Muhtar Kent be replaced.
- A statement from the fund was peppered with harsh language, calling Kent an "incapable" leader prone to "blunders" who has "destroyed shareholder value."
- The statement came as Coke said it expected earnings this quarter to be flat to slightly positive, less than Wall Street had forecast.
Dive Insight:
Wintergreen Advisers owns less than 1% of Coca-Cola shares. So complaints from the fund's CEO David Winters just don't carry as much weight at the soft drink behemoth as would, say, a similar complaint from shareholder Warren Buffett, who owns a much larger stake.
If there is one thing that can be safely predicted about the future of Coke's Muhtar Kent, it's that Buffett may want him to stay just as much as David Winters wants him to go.