Trian: DuPont appears to have won proxy fight

US chemical giant DuPont appears to have prevailed in the hard-fought proxy fight with activist investor Nelson Peltz's Trian Fund Management, Trian said Wednesday.

"It appears that the Trian nominees were not elected to the DuPont Board," the fund said in a statement.

"The vote was close," Trian said. "Regardless of the voting results, we believe that going forward, DuPont stockholders will be less tolerant of continued missed earnings guidance, extraordinary charges, value-destructive acquisitions and divestitures, executive compensation that is not aligned with performance, and operating metrics such as revenue growth and margins that fail to meet DuPont's own targets."

A DuPont spokesman said final results of the shareholder vote were not ready.

Peltz's Trian had depicted DuPont as a chronic and wasteful underperformer that repeatedly misses its profit targets. Peltz and three others had run for the board, arguing they could shake up the company and improve shareholder returns.

DuPont had argued that it was already reforming itself, returning billions of dollars to shareholders, restructuring the company's holdings and positioning itself to capitalize on its research advances in chemicals and agriculture technology.

Dow member DuPont sank 6.1 percent to $70.30 in pre-market trade.