NEW YORK, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Air Products and Chemicals ( APD )

shareholders on Thursday handed activist investor Mantle

Ridge Capital Management victory by electing three of its four

proposed director candidates to the industrial gases company's

nine-member board.

The company said that preliminary tallies show Mantle

Ridge's founder, Paul Hilal, Andrew Evans and Dennis Reilley

have been elected to the board. Shareholders did not elect the

company's chief executive officer Seifollah Ghasemi or its lead

director Edward Monser.

The vote ends one of the most fiercely contested board

battles in recent memory, with an octogenarian chief executive

facing off against a hedge fund manager who helped put him on to

the company's board a decade ago. The company is expected to

announce the news at its annual meeting on Thursday.