April 29 (Reuters) - Activist investment firm Engine

Capital pushed ride-sharing platform Lyft ( LYFT ) on Tuesday to

consider strategic alternatives, including a sale, amid a proxy

battle.

The investor, which owns about 1% of Lyft ( LYFT ), also called for

governance and capital allocation reforms at the company and

accused its board of lacking financial expertise.

Engine criticized the board for rejecting all four of its

director suggestions without interviews and claimed that seven

of Lyft's ( LYFT ) 10 directors lack prior public company board

experience.

Earlier this month, Engine nominated two directors to the

board of Lyft ( LYFT ) and said its attempts to engage with the

ride-hailing company's leadership were rebuffed.

Engine said on Tuesday its director nominees would encourage

Lyft's ( LYFT ) board to explore strategic alternatives that could

possibly lead to the sale of the company or parts of it.

It proposed Lyft ( LYFT ) execute a $750 million accelerated share

repurchase to counterbalance stock underperformance and signal

confidence to the market.

Lyft's ( LYFT ) cash balance and short-term investments totaled about

$2 billion at the end of last year.

The company's shares have fallen about 83% since its initial

public offering in 2019, compared to sharp gains by larger rival

Uber Technologies ( UBER ) and broader indices.

Lyft ( LYFT ) has a market value of about $5.2 billion, compared to

Uber's ( UBER ) $164 billion.

Lyft ( LYFT ) did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for

comment.

Engine also criticized Lyft's ( LYFT ) dual-class share structure,

which concentrates 30% of voting power in the hands of its

co-founders, who now hold about 2.3% of the company's equity.

The activist called for the board to eliminate staggered

elections and address excessive equity dilution, which it said

has averaged nearly 8% annually, undermining shareholder value.