Phillips 66 · PREC14A filed March 4, 2025 · Filed by Elliott Investment Management L.P. et al. · File No. 001-35349
Please reconcile the disclosure regarding "ABSTAIN" votes on page 10 with the disclosure regarding the effect of abstentions on pages 11, 39, and 41. Reasons for the Solicitation, page 21
No reply letter found.
Please provide corresponding disclosure for footnotes 1 and 2 that appear in the table at the top of page 22.
No reply letter found.
In footnote 2 to the graphic that appears at the top of page 24, we note the reference to "slide 49 in the appendix." It is unclear what this relates to. Please revise, or advise. Proposal No. 1, Election of Directors, page 28 We note the following disclosure on page 28: "We intend to provide the required notice to the Company pursuant to the Universal Proxy Rules, including Rule 14a4.Rest of the question
19(a)(1) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the 'Exchange Act'), and intend to solicit the holders of Common Stock representing at least 67% of the voting power of Common Stock entitled to vote on the election of directors in support of director nominees other than the Company’s nominees." Please advise as to why this is phrased as an intention, particularly in light of the fact that, via the statements made in your preliminary proxy statement, it appears that you may have satisfied the notice requirement set out in Rule 14a-19(a)(1). In addition, please define "Universal Proxy Rules," or revise so as not to use a capitalized term. Proposal No. 5, Advisory Vote on Annual Election Policy, page 42 5. Please revise your disclosure in this section to address the legal risk the Company may face if it attempts to adopt the annual election policy, which appears potentially to run counter to the Company's Charter and Bylaws, in particular the following Charter provision: "[t]he affirmative vote of shares representing not less than 80% of the votes entitled to be cast by the Voting Stock shall be required to alter, amend or adopt any provision inconsistent with or repeal … Article FIFTH [i.e., the article that requires the staggered board]” (emphasis added). 6. We note that the proposal seeks adoption of a policy that would "require" incumbent directors to deliver to the Board a letter of resignation. However, your disclosure also includes the following statement, which would appear to conflict with the foregoing: "If a director with a term not set to expire at the next annual meeting does not deliver a resignation in accordance with the policy, they would not be subject to election at the next annual meeting and would continue to serve on the Board until their term expires and their successor is duly elected, or their earlier resignation or removal." Please revise, or advise. General 7. On the proxy card, for the first proposal, please provide space for the Company Nominees, even if the identities of such nominees are not known or fully known at this time.
No reply letter found.
We note the disclosure on page 25 that receipt of Elliott's "formal" nomination notice occurred on February 13, 2025. Please also disclose, if true, that such notice was received by email on the previous day. We note the following disclosure on page 26: "On March 14, 2025, the Nominating and Governance Committee convened a special meeting via videoconference to discuss potential director candidates forRest of the question
recommendation to the Board to fill the four Class I seats up for election at the upcoming Annual Meeting, including to fill the vacancies created by Mr. Adams’ and Ms. Ramos’ decision not to stand for reelection." We also note the following disclosure in the Company's Form 8-K of February 18, 2025: "Effective immediately after the Annual Meeting, the size of the Company’s Board will be reduced from 14 to 12 directors." The first statement appears to imply that a decision had been made not to reduce the size of the Board from 14 to 12, contrary to what had been announced publicly on February 18. Please 2. revise the disclosure to clarify, or advise.
The Company respectfully acknowledges the Staff’s comment and, in response to the Staff’s comment, the Company proposes to revise the disclosure on page 25 of the Preliminary Proxy Statement as follows (with additions in bold underline):
“After 5:00 p.m., Eastern Time, on February 12, 2025, Elliott emailed an electronic copy of the
2025 Nomination Notice (as defined below) to Ms. Sutherland. Likely due to the file size of the attachment and the inclusion of an erroneous email address for Ms. Sutherland, the email was quarantined and did not arrive in Ms.Read in the reply ↗Rest of the answer
Sutherland’s main inbox.
After noon,
Eastern Time, on February 13, 2025, Elliott emailed Ms. Sutherland again to convey that IT issues had prevented certain signatures from being included in that prior email, and that Elliott was re-delivering an electronic copy and also delivering a physical copy of the corrected notice to the Company’s headquarters on February 13. That day, the Company received both physical and electronic copies of a formal notice (the “2025 Nomination Notice”) from Elliott of its intent to nominate director candidates to stand for election to the Company’s Board at the Annual Meeting and intent to submit the Elliott