VZ Verizon Communications Inc

   By Maria Armental 
 

Avis Budget Group Inc. (CAR), which has been locked in a fight with its biggest stakeholder, SRS Investment Management, is urging investors to support a slate of board nominees that includes three candidates picked by SRS.

The car-rental company said in a proxy filing Wednesday that among the candidates it endorsed are Sanoke Viswanathan, a mutually agreed-upon independent director who has served on Avis's board since 2016, SRS President Jagdeep Pahwa and Carl Sparks, who most recently worked as chief executive of Insight Ventures-backed Academic Partnerships.

Avis lead independent director Leonard Coleman said the 12-nominee slate demonstrates the company's "willingness to work cooperatively with a significant shareholder to advance the best interests of all shareholders."

Left out: SRS partner Brian Choi, who was appointed to the board with Mr. Viswanathan under the 2016 pact with SRS and most recently served on the compensation committee.

That means that, if elected, SRS would control three board seats. SRS had sought to add three seats to the two it already controlled.

Avis also proposed adding Francis Shammo, former Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) finance chief, and Glenn Lurie, CEO of Synchronoss Technologies Inc. (SNCR), as independent nominees to the board.

After Avis's announcement on Wednesday, SRS indicated it intended to continue the fight.

Avis's proposed slate, SRS said in a statement, "falls short of achieving the board refreshment that we believe is necessary to enact meaningful change for Avis stockholders. Accordingly, we intend to move forward with the nomination of our five director candidates" at Avis's annual meeting.

A SRS representative declined to comment beyond the statement.

Avis and SRS have been publicly sparring this year over how many seats the investor's stake warranted. Avis had previously said it attempted to offer SRS a third seat, but SRS had rejected that compromise because of the strings the company sought to attach to the new agreement. SRS said its requests for more of a say fit the size of its investment, but Avis said it felt the investor was seeking to gain control.

The stock, which Tuesday set a 52-week high, closed Wednesday down 1.9% at $49.40. Avis shares were unchanged after hours.

--David Benoit contributed to this story.

Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 21, 2018 20:11 ET (00:11 GMT)

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