Under Pressure, Hess Sells Retail Operations

Activist investor Paul Singer notched yet another high profile victory, as Marathon Petroleum Corp (NYSE:MPC) agreed to acquire Hess Corp. (NYSE:HES)’s gasoline stations and retail stores for $2.87 billion today.

Hess under pressure from activist hedge funds

Singer’s hedge fund Elliott Management and other activist funds had been pressuring Hess Corp. (NYSE:HES) to change their management approach and were granted three board seats, awarded to Singer loyalists in 2013 who were looking to shake up the company.  In what the New York Times called one of the biggest corporate governance fights of the year, Elliott vowed a change to what was termed a board filled with cronies of the founding family.

Hess...