Starboard Seeks to Take Control of Corteva Board, Oust CEO

Corteva, which was part of DowDuPont before it was spun out of the industrial conglomerate in 2019, is one of the world’s largest sellers of seeds and pesticides, with a market value of $33 billion.

In October, Starboard disclosed a roughly 1.6% stake in Wilmington, Del.-based Corteva. Mr. Smith said in a presentation at the time that the company’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization were little-changed from when it was formed in 2019, lagging behind peers.

In response to a question about that criticism on Corteva’s earnings call in November, Mr. Collins said he agrees the business has room to improve its margins. “Probably the only question in that whole discussion is our view of the timing of that improvement,” he said.

Starboard has been in on-and-off talks with the company since the fall and nominated board members before the deadline to do so in late December, the people familiar with the matter said. Efforts to head off a proxy fight at the annual meeting in the spring have so far been unsuccessful. The current board fully supports Mr. Collins, some of the people said.

Corteva and other farm suppliers have struggled in recent years. Since 2013, a succession of bumper crops in the U.S. and elsewhere have helped swell global grain supplies and push down crop prices. Reduced income for farmers has made it harder for seed and pesticide suppliers to raise prices.

Crop prices have staged a major rally in recent months. Mr. Collins and other Corteva executives have talked up the company’s new lineup of crop seeds. They include biotech soybean seeds that pair with a herbicide designed to defeat hard-to-kill weeds.

New York-based Starboard is one of the most active corporate agitators.

ON Semiconductor Corp.

recently named a new CEO and added two directors to its board after discussions with the hedge fund.

—Jacob Bunge contributed to this article.

Write to Cara Lombardo at cara.lombardo@wsj.com