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Will Kenny Be Voted Off the Isle of BofA?

Published: Apr 29, 2009

 Finance       
Bank of America's annual shareholder meeting has just kicked off in Charlotte, N.C., where BofA shareholders will vote on whether or not Kenny Lewis will remain the BofA chairman of the board.

It's shaping up to be a close contest. CalPERS, the country's largest pension fund manager, and other big institutional shareholders have thrown their support behind killing Kenny's bid to keep his chairman post, while North Carolina's pension fund as well as many individual shareholders say they've got his back and want him to stay.

The news surrounding the highly-anticipated vote heated up in the past few days as it was revealed that the undynamic duo of Hank Paulson and Benny Bernanke put a 12-gauge to Kenny's forehead, forcing him to marry Mother Merrill Lynch when Kenny started getting cold feet (after he caught Merrill with her pants down, discovering she had a few billion more in losses than she originally let on).

The revelation could play into Kenny's hand if shareholders on the fence believe Kenny had no choice but say I do and place a diamond on Merrill's finger, thus partially absolving him from making the bad to decision to wed the bull. Or, it could be used against him by those who think he should've had the stones to stand up to Hank and Ben and the rest of the feds, looking out for his shareholders' interests rather than running scared to the altar.

As for the numbers, Kenny did put up some good ones for the first quarter 2009. Though, today it's been leaked that BofA might not be able to handle the pressure: preliminary results from the U.S. government's stress tests point to BofA (and others, including Citi) needing more capital, which can't be good for Kenny's cause today.

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