Alliant Techsystems Inc. shareholders will face a joint proxy proposal from the Connecticut Retirement Plans & Trust Funds and New York State Common Retirement Fund calling on the company to address “public safety issues arising from the misuse of firearms and ammunition that poses risk to investor value,” according to a statement from the $27.1 billion Hartford-based Connecticut fund.
“Alliant Techsystems will enhance its long-term shareholder value if it is seen as a reasonable public voice in the debate over the proper response to the massacre” in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., Denise L. Nappier, Connecticut state treasurer and sole trustee of the state retirement fund, said in the statement.
The company “will suffer if the public perceives them as unwilling to consider reasonable voluntary measures, such as the Sandy Hook Principles (or set of guidelines to curb firearms), because of long-standing entrenched positions against gun-control regulation,” Ms. Nappier said in the statement.
The proposal was triggered by the company’s failure to respond to a request from Ms. Nappier to discuss the principles, the statement said.
Aside from background checks of sellers and purchasers, the principles include “re-evaluating policies regarding the sale, production, design or conversion of military-style assault weapons for use by civilians, including the distribution of any materials (or) information that may be used to assist in such conversions,” the statement said.
The Connecticut funds held 7,324 Alliant Techsystems shares valued at $955,049, and fixed-income investments valued at $756,875 as of Feb. 17, the statement said.
Nikki Jones, deputy press secretary for Thomas P. DiNapoli, New York state comptroller and sole trustee of the $173.2 billion New York fund, couldn’t be reached for comment.
Alliant Techsystems “will address (the proposal) in accordance with the applicable Securities and Exchange Commission regulation … and our company process,” Amanda Covington, Alliant Techsystems vice president, corporate communications, said in an e-mail.
Alliant Techsystems hasn’t filed its proxy statement.
