Loeb's third point calls for restructuring Nestlé in presentation

"This is a call to urgency – rather than incrementalism," said Loeb's letter. He came up with a 34-page presentation with recommendations and reviews. Third Point, the $ 18 billion hedge fund that has invested more than $ 3 billion in Nestle, has also launched the http://www.nestlenow.com website to argue its case.

Loeb's letter, as seen by Reuters, required Nestle to abandon more companies that do not fit its strategy, including ice cream, frozen foods and confectionery; to divide internally into three divisions – beverages, nutrition and groceries; and add an outsider to the board with expertise in the area of ​​food and beverages.

Each division should have its own CEO, regional structure and marketing managers, Loeb said. This would "simplify the overly complex organizational structure (of Nestlé)," says the letter.

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Nestle did not comment immediately on this letter, which was first reported by the Financial Times.

"Islander, Complacent and Bureaucratic"

Loeb's claims roughly date back to the first anniversary of his investment in Nestle and a significant merger in the food industry. For months, the activist investor who had previously prompted Yahoo and Dow Chemical as well as other companies to change, watched and regularly commented favorably on Nestlé's new chief executive, Mark Schneider.

But his letter makes it clear that Third Point no longer wants to keep its critics behind closed doors.

He criticized Nestlé's weak growth in sales, the drop in share prices and its inability to sell more coins that did not fit in with its "health and well-being nutrition" strategy.

The biggest concern of the fund manager was the company structure, with the board of directors in charge of strategic direction.

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"Nestle's insular, complacent and bureaucratic organization is too complex, lethargic and lacking in trend," said Loeb in his letter.

In early 2017, the Swiss company hired Schneider, a German, as the first non-Swiss CEO in nearly a century. He had won praise for the revision of Fresenius Medical Care.

But former CEO Paul Bulcke remained Nestlé's chairman of the board, which raised eyebrows among governance experts. Insiders say that after months at the helm, Schneider has not yet created his own team.

Industry experts say that CEOs sometimes privately host public criticism from big shareholders, such as effective coverage to push changes forward more aggressively. Loeb has only created websites twice before – at Yahoo and Dow Chemical – but has been heard in many companies and recently pushed United Technologies to split into three companies.

(Report by Svea Herbst-Bayliss with additional reports by Rama Venkat Raman, edited by Paul Simao and David Gregorio)