Brazilian investor Tanure names just 1 GPA board member, not 3

By Luciana Magalhaes and Patricia Vilas Boas

May 5 (Reuters) - An investment fund controlled by Brazilian investor Nelson Tanure decided to appoint just one member to the board of retail chain Grupo Pao de Açucar (GPA) at a shareholder meeting on Monday.

Tanure, who owns about 7% of GPA's PCAR3.SA shares, had requested the removal of the previous board of directors earlier this year and the election of new members, including three representatives appointed by him.

However, other groups of investors who were not represented on the board decided to appoint members as well, diluting support for Tanure's appointees. This motivated him to withdraw the names of two other people he had nominated, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters earlier on Monday.

"We chose to elect only one independent candidate whom we trust, with deep knowledge of the retail market, as a way to protect our investment, given the difficult scenario we foresee for GPA," Tanure told Reuters.

The minutes from the meeting released by GPA confirmed that the nominations of Pedro de Moraes Borba and Rodrigo Tostes Solon de Pontes were withdrew by the fund controlled by Tanure, while Sebastian Dario Los, also appointed by the fund, was elected.

Tanure acquired GPA shares on the market last year and has since been interested in buying additional securities from French group Casino, Reuters reported in March.