Trustees Absolve Trustees

Lots here:  https://ir.stockpr.com/tpltrust/sec-filings-email/content/0000097517-20-000033/tpl-20200624.htm

  1. New General Counsel/SVP coming on board 8/1/20.  He is a veteran of David Barry’s old firm, Kelley Drye & Warren LLP though I’m sure a nationwide search was conducted.
  2. “On June 30, 2020, the Trust entered into an Indemnification Agreement with each of its Trustees, John R. Norris III and David E. Barry (each, an “Indemnification Agreement”). The Indemnification Agreements are identical in form and each provides that, subject to certain limitations set forth therein, the Trust will indemnify the Trustee to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, against losses or expenses incurred in relation to the Trustee’s service to the Trust. The indemnification agreements also provide that the Trust will advance expenses, subject to certain limitations, to each Trustee in connection with proceedings covered by the indemnification agreement.”  What are we indemnifying ourselves from?
  3. “Sameer Parasnis, Chief Commercial Officer of the Trust, is no longer employed by the Trust effective June 24, 2020.”  Recall that Mr. Parasnis was formerly an energy banker employed by Stifel and Credit Suisse.  What happened to cause this separation?

Seems like a big information dump.  The optimist in me hopes the conversion isn’t going south but I don’t have a great feeling about this.  Tell me I’m wrong!

 

Clock Ticking on C-Suite Purchases

C’mon team.  Join us.

In all fairness, they could be restricted due to pending conversion.

https://sec.report/Document/97517/000009751719000039/exhibit101employmentag.htm

(b)    Cash BonusDuring the Employment Term, Employee shall be eligible for an annual cash bonus of up to 300% of the Base Salary for the same year (the “Cash Bonus”) as determined in accordance with reasonable and customary performance metrics to be developed annually by the Trustees in consultation with the Employee, but subject to the ultimate decision of the Trustees. With respect to the calendar year 2019 only, the Cash Bonus shall be determined as set forth in Exhibit A. The Cash Bonus, if any, shall be paid no later than March 15th of the year following the year in which the Bonus is earned (i.e., March 15, 2020 for the Cash Bonus earned in 2019), provided, however, that except as set forth in Sections 5 and 6 of this Agreement, Employee shall be eligible for the Cash Bonus for a year only to the extent he continued to be employed by the Trust through the end of that year; and provided further, that, until such time as Employee becomes eligible to participate in an equity compensation plan established by the Trust, Employee shall use no less than twenty-five percent (25%) of the value of the Cash Bonus (net of estimated taxes) to purchase shares of the Trust’s common stock; such purchase shall be completed no later than six (6) months after payment of the Cash Bonus has been completed unless, at that time Employee is in possession of material non-public information in which event the purchase shall occur as soon as practically available in accordance with Federal securities laws. The Trust’s exercise of its decision not to renew this Agreement voluntarily pursuant to the terms of Section 3 shall not affect Employee’s right to receive any calendar year bonus that has already accrued and remains to be paid. Further, the requirement upon Employee to use any portion of a Cash Bonus to purchase shares of the Trust’s common stock shall not apply in any situation where a Section 5 notice of termination has been issued.

TPLC 8-K & Stockholders Agreement

https://ir.stockpr.com/tpltrust/sec-filings-email/content/0001213900-20-014919/ea122864-8k_texas.htm

https://ir.stockpr.com/tpltrust/sec-filings-email/content/0001213900-20-014919/ea122864ex10-1_texas.htm

Staggered board:

1. Board Composition and Related Matters.

(a) Immediately following the Distribution Time, TPL Corp shall take all actions necessary to appoint Murray Stahl (together with any replacement designated pursuant to this Section 1(a), the “Horizon Designee”) and Eric L. Oliver (together with any replacement designated pursuant to this Section 1(a), the “SoftVest Designee”, and together with the Horizon Designee, each an “Investor Group Designee” and, collectively, the “Investor Group Designees”) to the Board if each Investor Group Designee fulfills each of the conditions set forth in Section 1(d) below (the “Appointment Conditions”) as of the Distribution Time. Based on the information available to the Trustees (including responses to the director questionnaires and follow-up questions thereto), the Trustees believe that Murray Stahl and Eric L. Oliver satisfy the Appointment Conditions as of the Effective Date. In the event that, prior to the Distribution Time, either of Murray Stahl or Eric L. Oliver fails to satisfy the Appointment Conditions, the Investor Group shall have the right to designate replacement candidates for the Horizon Designee or SoftVest Designee, as applicable, until two candidates satisfy the Appointment Conditions and have been approved as Investor Group Designees by the Trustees (such approval not to be unreasonably withheld).

(b) Immediately following the Distribution Time, TPL Corp shall take all actions necessary to appoint Dana F. McGinnis (together with any replacement designated pursuant to this Section 1(b), the “Mission Designee” and together with the Investor Group Designees, each a “Stockholder Designee” and, collectively, the “Stockholder Designees”) to the Board if the Mission Designee fulfills each of the Appointment Conditions as of the Distribution Time. Based on the information available to the Trustees (including responses to the director questionnaires and follow-up questions thereto), the Trustees believe that Dana F. McGinnis satisfies the Appointment Conditions as of the Effective Date. In the event that, prior to the Distribution Time, Dana F. McGinnis fails to satisfy the Appointment Conditions, the Trustees and Murray Stahl shall agree on a replacement candidate for the Mission Designee, who satisfies the Appointment Conditions (such agreement not to be unreasonably withheld).

(c) Effective immediately following the Distribution Time, (i) the Board shall be divided into three classes of directors, as nearly equal in number as reasonably possible in accordance with the Certificate of Incorporation of TPL Corp (as amended from time to time, the “Charter”), and (ii) the Trust and TPL Corp, as applicable, shall have taken and completed all actions necessary to cause the Mission Designee to be appointed to Class I of the Board (with a term expiring in 2021), the SoftVest Designee to be appointed to Class II of the Board (with a term expiring in 2022) and the Horizon Designee to be appointed to Class III of the Board (with a term expiring in 2023).

“Customary Standstill”:

(b) acquire, offer or seek to acquire, agree to acquire or acquire rights to acquire or otherwise beneficially own (except by way of stock dividends or other distributions or offerings made available to holders of voting securities of the Trust or TPL Corp generally on a pro rata basis), directly or indirectly, whether by purchase, tender or exchange offer, through the acquisition of control of another person, by joining a group, through swap or hedging transactions or otherwise, any voting securities of the Trust or TPL Corp (other than through a broad-based market basket or index) or any voting rights decoupled from the underlying voting securities which would result in (i) Horizon having ownership or control of, or other beneficial ownership interest in, 23.5% or more, in the aggregate, of the then-outstanding Sub-share Certificates or shares of the Common Stock (the “Horizon Cap”), (ii) SoftVest having ownership or control of, or other beneficial ownership interest in, 4.0% or more, in the aggregate, of the then-outstanding Sub-share Certificates or shares of the Common Stock (the “SoftVest Cap”) or (iii) Mission having ownership or control of, or other beneficial ownership interest in, 5% or more, in the aggregate, of the then-outstanding Sub-share Certificates or shares of the Common Stock (the “Mission Cap”, and each of the Horizon Cap, the SoftVest Cap and the Mission Cap, individually, an “Ownership Cap”); provided, however, that, subject to Section 3(c), in the event that the Trust or TPL Corp (A) acquires through share purchases Sub-share Certificates or shares of the Common Stock or (B) undertakes a reverse share split, and any of such actions reduces the number of securities of the Trust or TPL Corp outstanding and thereby increases the proportionate number of Sub-share Certificates or shares of Common Stock that a Stockholder has ownership or control of, or otherwise beneficially owns, to a proportion of Sub-share Certificates or shares of the Common Stock that is equal to or greater than the applicable Ownership Cap for such Stockholder (such event, a “Share Reduction Event”), then such Stockholder shall not be deemed to have acquired or otherwise beneficially own an amount of Sub-share Certificates or shares of the Common Stock that is greater than the number of shares permitted pursuant to such Stockholder’s applicable Ownership Cap (such amount of securities in excess of a Stockholder’s Ownership Cap, the “Excess Shares”) in violation of this Section 3(b) as a result of such Share Reduction Event; provided, further, that such Stockholder shall divest its Excess Shares within a reasonable time period (but in any event, within 30 calendar days of becoming aware of such Share Reduction Event) so that such Stockholder no longer has ownership or control of, or otherwise holds a beneficial ownership interest in, such Excess Shares;

Can HK not buy more TPL on behalf of new client funds?  The standstill section is long and I’m not a lawer.  Sounds like everyone is contractually bound to play nice with respect to ownership stake changes and the like.

Speaking of playing nice:

4. Mutual Non-Disparagement. Without the prior written consent of the other parties, no party shall, nor shall it permit any of its Representatives to, make any public or private statement that undermines, disparages or otherwise reflects detrimentally on (a) another party, (b) another party’s current or former trustees (including the Trustees) or directors in their capacity as such, (c) another party’s officers or employees (including with respect to such persons’ service at the other party), (d) another party’s subsidiaries, or (e) the business of another party or another party’s subsidiaries or any of its or its subsidiaries’ current directors, officers or employees, including the business and current or former directors, officers and employees of the other party’s controlled Affiliates, as applicable. The restrictions in this Section 4 shall not (i) apply (A) in any compelled testimony or production of information in response to a Legal Requirement, or (B) to any disclosure that such party reasonably believes, after consultation with its outside counsel, to be legally required by applicable law, rules or regulations; or (ii) prohibit any party from reporting what it reasonably believes, after consultation with its outside counsel, to be violations of federal law or regulation to any governmental authority pursuant to Section 21F of the Exchange Act or Rule 21F promulgated thereunder.

5. Mutual Releases. Effective at the Distribution Time, and as a condition to the appointment of the Stockholder Designees to the Board, the Trust, the Trustees, and all members of the Investor Group (as defined in the Settlement Agreement) shall execute an agreement substantially in the form attached as Exhibit C to the Settlement Agreement (the “Form of Mutual General Release Agreement”), provided, however, that the Form of Mutual General Release Agreement shall, prior to execution, be modified to expressly provide that such agreement shall be effective upon the Distribution Time.

6. No Litigation. Each party hereby covenants and agrees that it shall not, and shall not permit any of its Representatives to, directly or indirectly, alone or in concert with others, encourage, pursue or assist any other person to threaten or initiate, any lawsuit, claim or proceeding before any court (each, a “Legal Proceeding”) against the other party or any of its Representatives, except for (a) any Legal Proceeding initiated primarily to remedy a breach of or to enforce this Agreement and (b) counterclaims with respect to any proceeding initiated by, or on behalf of one party or its Affiliates against the other party or its Affiliates; provided, however, that the foregoing shall not prevent any party or any of its Representatives from responding to oral questions, interrogatories, requests for information or documents, subpoenas, civil investigative demands or similar processes (each, a “Legal Requirement”) in connection with any Legal Proceeding if such Legal Proceeding has not been initiated by, on behalf of or at the direct or indirect suggestion of such party or any of its Representatives; provided, further that in the event any party or any of its Representatives receives such Legal Requirement, such party shall give prompt written notice of such Legal Requirement to the other party (except where such notice would be legally prohibited or not practicable). Each party represents and warrants that neither it nor any assignee has filed any pending Legal Proceeding against any other party.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Texas Pacific Land Corporation

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200615005178/en/Texas-Pacific-Land-Trust-Update-Corporate-Reorganization

The Trust continues to make progress toward effecting the corporate reorganization by the end of the third quarter of 2020 but recognizes that unforeseen impacts of COVID-19 could extend this timeframe despite the Trust’s efforts. Barring any such disruptions, further information regarding the corporate reorganization, including details about the transaction and management of the new corporation, will be included in the registration statement when it is publicly filed with the SEC.

The Trustees also announced today the selection of all members of the new corporation’s nine-member board of directors. Immediately following the effectiveness of the corporate reorganization, the board will consist of the following members (in alphabetical order): David E. Barry; General Donald G. Cook, USAF (Ret.); Barbara J. Duganier; Donna E. Epps; Tyler Glover; Dana F. McGinnis; John R. Norris III; Eric L. Oliver; and Murray Stahl.

Mr. Glover, who has been the Chief Executive Officer of the Trust since November 2016, has been selected to serve as Chief Executive Officer as well as a director of the new corporation.

Pennies from heaven for General Cook.

Mostly familiar faces on the proposed board of 9.  Couple I didn’t know.

https://www.nblenergy.com/leadership/barbara-j-duganier

https://www.linkedin.com/in/donna-epps/

Further information about the board of directors and management of the new corporation, including details about their qualifications and experience, will be included in an information statement, which will be part of the registration statement, to be made available to the Trust’s sub-share certificate holders.

Nothing in this press release on board seat terms.

Board breakdown:

Skin in the game: McGinnis, Oliver, Stahl

Professional board members: Duganier, Epps, Cook

Little demonstrated regard for TPL owners:  Barry, Norris, Glover