April 17 (Reuters) - Hudbay Minerals HBM.TO said on Wednesday its largest shareholder would back the company's board nominees in an upcoming election, bolstering the Canadian miner's position in its proxy battle with activist investor Waterton Global Resource Management Inc.
Shareholder Letko, Brosseau & Associates Inc's support comes as Waterton, with a roughly 12 percent stake in the miner, pushes for major changes to Hudbay's board. Letko, Brosseau & Associates owns 13.4 percent of the company. company's second largest shareholder has blamed Hudbay's current management of underperformance and low shareholder returns and proposed five new independent board members, two of whom Hudbay has accepted.
On Monday, Waterton filed a lawsuit against Hudbay to stop it from soliciting proxies for the shareholders' meeting. The company has called the litigation "frivolous".
Waterton was not immediately available for comment.
Hudbay's shares were up 1.2 percent at C$10.10 in afternoon trading.