Investor Group Sends Letter To Texas Pacific Land Trustees Highlighting Urgent Need For Corporate Governance Reform At TPL
Happy July. We start the month off with a letter from Murray Stahl appealing for clean governance. MS fighting back against the takeover narrative started by the Trustees.
Your press release and the examples you cite simply calls attention with clarity to the range of abuses possible within the current framework. It is for that reason that the other day I called upon you to provide each shareholder with an updated shareholder list to facilitate the formation of open discussion groups among shareholders with a view of developing a consensus regarding alternative governance structures.
Incidentally, I declined to join your exploratory committee since I would have been required to sign a confidentiality agreement regarding governance discussions. I wished to retain the liberty of open discourse and I hope that the shareholders who read this letter will find it to be a constructive effort to promote discussion.
The Texas Pacific Land Trust Investor 
Strong work. Flipped the script!
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Sunlight is the best disinfectant. Wish we could just jump to the discovery stage.
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Murry Stahl continues to do a masterful job of pointing out the logical flaws in the trustees arguments. He really is good at keeping the focus on what is important which is the trustees as dictators for life governance model.
Although the war of press releases is fun to watch, neither side is going to be swayed, even though the superior writing skills are clearly with the HK/Softvest/Oliver camp. Federal court is going to be the forum for a solution.
Key dates to watch:
o Trustees have until July 15th to answer the motion to dismiss.
o HK/Softvest/Oliver have until August 5th for rebuttal of the Trustees response.
o Judge Boyle ruling would be anticipated in 2-3 weeks after August 5th.
No dates have been set for the HK/Softvest/Oliver motion for Declaratory Judgment and Preliminary Injunction, filed on June 25th. Typical is the trustees will be given a date to respond to the motion which has not yet happened. An additional wrinkle is HK/Softvest/Oliver are pressing for a court hearing on these motions after both sides have entered their motions and responses.
It feels like HK/Softvest/Oliver believe they have a legally advantaged position and want to push forward to resolve. The Trustees by contrast favor a lengthy discovery process where delay is part of the strategy.
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