ISS Adds Pressure to Tri-Continental Corporation

A little additional heat was added to the upcoming Tri-Continental (TY) vote. Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) is recommending that stockholders vote for the Western Investment director nominees.  Western Investment, as you might recall, is playing the role of activist shareholder and prepared a press release this week detailing the ISS recommendation.

I originally purchased Tri-Continental on the hope that over time the double digit discount that this closed end fund was selling for would decrease.  It now looks like there is a real possibility that this discount to net asset value (NAV) could decrease as a result of Western Investment’s actions.  There has been a lot of campaigning associated with the upcoming vote.  I’ve gotten so many proxies, gold and white, that I starting to just let them pile up now that I’ve voted.

I’m going to have to start closely following TY over the next couple of weeks.  I’m not sure if Western Investment will be able to win the proxy vote, but I am hoping that their actions will result in some real changes to benefit shareholders.  Tri-Continental has been in my FPF Value portfolio since August of 2005 when I added it to my portfolio for $17.40 per share.  The share price has already appreciated nicely, but I think there still might be room for more gains.